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Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It

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ChadTower:

Seriously... if they reproduced with any regularity at all the ocean floor would be freakin' covered with them.  Every time you kill one you're probably killing 50 years worth of clams.

mccoy178:

--- Quote from: patrickl on October 30, 2007, 06:33:22 am ---
--- Quote from: mccoy178 on October 29, 2007, 08:43:46 pm ---I heard this on NPR this morning.  I was a little sick to hear that they "had" to kill it to be able to count it.  Is it really worth it? :dunno

--- End quote ---
They didn't kill it just to learn it's age.

--- End quote ---

That was what the guy on NPR said.  The interviewer asked if Ming was still alive and he said, "Well, unfortunately, to tell the age it is an involved process that involves counting from the inside..."  Or something to that affect.  It may have died from other causes, but that is what he implied.  I really don't give a crap about clams, but when something is rare, something is rare.  Why mess with it?

ChadTower:

They mess with them because the clam has been sitting on the ocean floor for centuries recording info about water temps, oxygen levels, plant levels, etc etc... they don't really want to do it but as they get better at analyzing the shells there is a ridiculous amount of historical info in there.

They just better limit how many of these things they take or these clams will end up extinct in a hurry.

ChadTower:

How long until he says that we need to kill more 600 year old clams to provide evidence of damage to the environment?

patrickl:

--- Quote from: pinballjim on October 30, 2007, 10:23:43 am ---How long until Al Gore tries to use the clam as proof of global warming?

--- End quote ---
They set out to catch and study those shells to find more about climate change. So it does make sense that this research will find it's way into one of the reports yes.

Bangor University: 400 year old Clam Found.


--- Quote ---The Bangor scientists are sclerochronologists who study the growth and age of clams using annual growth lines in the shell in much the same way as dendrochronologists study the growth of trees using tree-rings.  Clam shell growth is related to environmental conditions such as seawater temperature, salinity and food availability.  The team analyse the shell growth histories with a view to understanding changes in the ocean linked to climate change.
--- End quote ---

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