Ming the Clam, once the world's oldest animal, was killed at 507 years of age by scientists trying to determine its age in 2006.Ming the Clam (1499–2006) is a nickname given to a specimen of the ocean
quahog clam (
Arctica islandica), that was excavated off the coast of Iceland in 2006 and whose age was calculated by counting annual growth lines in the shell.
Ming was the oldest individual animal ever discovered whose age could be accurately determined. The
mollusc’s 507 year old life came to an end in 2006 when the British researchers – unaware of the animal’s impressive age – opened up its shell to examine it.
The clam was named Ming in reference to the
Ming dynasty, during which it was born. Interestingly, the second oldest ocean quahog specimen, also collected alive near Iceland in 1868, was determined to be 374 years old.
