A five-hundred-year-old centenarian died as a result of an autopsy
Scientists have killed the oldest animal on Earth, trying to find out its age
Scientists from Britain and the USA have discovered the oldest animal on Earth – a mollusk, which was the same age as Columbus, but in the process of research killed him.
"(We found) several animals whose life expectancy exceeded 300 years, and one aged 507 years, which became the oldest currently known non–colonial animal whose age at the time of death could be accurately determined," the researchers said in an article published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Until now, the 220-year-old bivalve marine mollusk, found in 1982, was considered the oldest mollusk and the oldest animal in general, according to the Guinness Book. However, Arctic mollusks have already surpassed them.
A group led by Paul Butler from the British Bangor University discovered a "Methuselah" mollusk back in 2006 off the northern coast of Iceland. Scientists have been collecting mollusks and their shells in order to study their structure, to restore, as by annual tree rings, climatic changes over the past hundreds of years.
Scientists studied the bivalve mollusks Arctica islandica, known for their longevity. The growth of their shells depends on how favorable the environmental conditions are and how much food is available, so the "annual layers" on them can tell about climate changes. As a result, scientists really managed to get a long series of data stretching 1.35 thousand years into the past, but in one case they were still mistaken.
The annual layers on the shell are visible from the outside, the easiest way to count them is in the area where the flaps connect, so scientists had to open the shell and kill the mollusks. Determining the age of the mollusk, which received the number 061294, scientists came to the conclusion that he was 407 years old, and gave him the name Ming – in honor of the imperial Ming dynasty that reigned in China at the time of his birth.
However, they missed the age by 100 years – the fact is that hundreds of "annual rings" need to be counted in just a few millimeters of space. Now they have published updated data – the mollusk turned out to be 100 years older (although the years of his youth still fall on the Ming era). He was born around 1499 and was a contemporary of Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther.
"We incorrectly determined the age for the first time, and maybe we were somewhat hasty with the publication of our data then (the first article with an erroneous estimate was published in 2008). But now we are absolutely sure that we have determined the age correctly," Butler told ScienceNordic (New record: World's oldest animal is 507 years old – VM).
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.11.2013