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Clam That Was Killed Determining Its Age Was Over 100 Years Older Than Estimated
schwit1 writes "In 2006, climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales found a very special clam while dredging the seabeds of Iceland. At that time scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to determine that the clam was the ripe old age of 405. Unfortunately, by opening the clam which scientists refer to as 'Ming,' they killed it instantly. Cut to 2013, researchers have determined that the original calculations of Ming's age were wrong, and that the now deceased clam was actually 102 years older than originally thought. Ming was 507 years old at the time of its demise."
It took 7 years for scientists to count to 507 (the rings the clamshell form). I'm glad my math skills are superior. It must be all that metric math in the UK...
To ask what its name was. Now we know it was named "Ming." Science marches onward.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
What was the point of examining this individual animal?
Look at us still talking when there's science to do...
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
Science 1, Nature 0
THL phish sticks
Our duty is clear: we must capture and kill as many clams as possible to locate an even older clam, thus obviating any guilt about having killed the oldest clam!
There's a theory that the older the clam, the better clam chowder it makes.
We'll have to use science to find out for sure, just need to get more 500 year old clams to get a larger sample size.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
That was a merciless thing to do to a clam.
And they call themselves scientists?! How do they know that the clam wasn't already dead when they opened the box... erhm, I mean the shell?
Interesting that it was about 5,000 years old. The young earth theory is looking more credible all the time.
"And crawling on the planet's face, some insects... called the Human Race."
- The Criminologist
He was delicious.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
MRI will work just fine. .05mm thick annual rings.
However, it'll just tell you that it's not got cancer.
It does not have resolution enough to resolve the perhaps
A number of obvious approaches occur - for example - cut a small plug of shell with a plug cutter.
This is basically a drillbit with a hollow core, designed to remove a rod of material intact.
Yes, this will somewhat injure the clam when the small plug is removed, but it can then be polished and examined microscopically to determine the age.
My first thought would be to take this rod, and examine the composition in an appropriate electron microscope.
The clam would be slightly injured, but it's unlikely to be a clamity.
It was actually named after the Ming Dynasty
That does make more sense than Ming the Merciless...
Its not pleasant to examine a 500 year old clam
That seems rather self explanatory doesn't it?
I am a scientist myself, but even I feel slightly bit disturbed by this realisation - that the oldest animal on Earth was killed in the experiment. I don't know why, I guess I have some kind of respect for the uniqueness of the status of this animal.
I understand completely. But it's OK, the clam had already outlived all its friends and even its children. What else did it have to live for? Its bucket list was marked off long ago. (Yes, it was a "clam bucket" list.) The list had only two items: "Filter seawater" and "Reproduce". Been there, done that. For over five hundred years. Boring...
At least the poor thing never ended up in a nursing home. Bad food, nobody comes to visit, rude staff. Feh! Better off dead...
Perhaps they should've called it Kenny...
"At least the poor thing never ended up in a nursing home. Bad food[...]"
After they were done, they donated the remains to a local nursing home to turn into soup. A Welsh nursing home. Your comment, however accurate it may be, is just cruelly throwing salt in the wound. Not literally, of course. The soup could probably use it if you did, though.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Hey...I know her.
They did manage to get in a short interview before it died and the ancient clam said, "The first hundred years were the worst and the second hundred years, they were the worst too. The third hundred years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
As a vegetarian, how do you feel about eating still living fresh vegetables?
True extremist vegans eat only inorganic food, made of metal and stone.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I believe in this case, science lurches onward.
I hope they at least cooked and ate it.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
To identify it's age and growth rate at various years which not only yields information about the clams, and by extension a whole chunk of that areas ecology over time, but it also gives a climate data as well. Sure, it's not daily temps, but it's still important, especially when you don't have a lot of other sources to get data from. Let's just say Iceland doesn't have a whole lot of choices for extrapolating the old climate data from.
Besides, it was bound to be chowder or seagull bait after it got dredged up anyhow.
Yes, the scientists were very shellfish.
And it was delicious!
as far as I can tell they were dredging them for the explicit purpose of measuring their ages?
(how that relates to climate science I don't get, but I suppose if all the money is in "climate science" studies then biologists have to start calling themselves that too...)
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
> We study stellar evolution through observation, because we are limited by the methods available.
I have no doubt that humans will smash stars together the morning after they finally acquire the technology. Actually, they'll pull an all-nighter instead, 'cause the kids are in bed and this shit's AWESOME!!!
Note to grammar Nazis: I misspelled "euphemism".
Note to nerds: A vagina is a superficially clamlike object between a female's legs.
Note to nerds: A female is a person who bears children when people who are not you mate with them.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.