World’s Oldest Animal Found, Then Killed

Ming the clam was the oldest animal ever — then scientists killed it

Guys, scientists found out a clam they discovered a few years ago was the OLDEST LIVING ANIMAL EVER — hurray! But they’ve also confessed that they accidentally killed it when they opened it up to see how old it was — oh. Ming the clam was thought to be around 405 years old when it was found by researchers in Iceland in 2006, but more recent dating methods have determined that Ming was actually 507 years old. That means the mollusk made its way into the world around 1499, which explains how it got its posthumous name (Ming was the Chinese dynasty in power when the clam was born).

Unfortunately, Ming’s life came to an unglamorous end when it was opened up for scrutiny the first time around — a move researchers wouldn’t have made if they had suspected how old it really was. "We got [the age] wrong the first time, and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then," ocean scientist Paul Butler told ScienceNordic. We don’t think the newly discovered discrepancy makes a difference to Ming now, but thanks for coming clean. [Source] [Source] [Source]