However, Butler says that as researchers continue their climate change work, they could encounter other clams as old or older than Ming.īutler speaks with Alex Chadwick about the discovery. Researchers have to open the clams in order to count their rings - a procedure that is fatal. Unfortunately, 405 is as old as Ming will get. While it is not uncommon to encounter 100 and 200-year-old clams in the waters around Iceland where the researchers are working, finding a 405-year-old mollusk is rare.īutler says the clam, which is less than six inches in size, was named Ming after the Chinese dynasty that was in power when the clam came into being. Butler says researchers also measure the rings to study climate change over time, which is how they came across the clam in the first place. Like tallying the age of a tree, researchers count the rings on the clam shell to determine its age. In 2013, a quahog clam known as Ming, believed to be the worlds oldest animal at 507 years old, was killed by scientists trying to tell how old it was.

He was on the boat when the clam was found. Paul Butler, a research student at Bangor University in Wales, says it was technically an ocean quahog, but everyone calls it a clam. You can change these settings by clicking “Ad Choices / Do not sell my info” in the footer at any time.Researchers found what may have been the oldest living animal. Please note that you will still see advertising, but it will not be personalised to you. You can choose not to receive personalised ads by clicking “Reject data collection and continue” below. Read more about how we personalise ads in the BBC and our advertising partners. When you consent to data collection on AMP pages you are consenting to allow us to display personalised ads that are relevant to you when you are outside of the UK. We use local storage to store your consent preferences on your device. Read more about the essential information we store on your device to make our web pages work. To make our web pages work, we store some limited information on your device without your consent. Only, it wasn't living anymore, because opening it up had killed the clam. The lightweight mobile page you have visited has been built using Google AMP technology. They'd found the oldest living animal in the world (excluding primitive metozoans). Instrumental analysis, sensory analysis, and comprehensive statistical analysis were performed to explain the relationship between aroma and odorants in clam soup. You may be asked to set these preferences again when you visit non-AMP BBC pages. Clam is a kind of nutritious, delicious and economical aquatic food around the world and is famous for its unique aroma.

Ming the clam