How long does a clam live?

by whlooi | Filed under BSL5.com, General, Interesting, Science.

Averagely they have about four to eight years of life span. But not for this 405 year-old clam which was discovered by a group of researchers from Bangor University in Wales where they believed to be the world’s oldest living animal. Can you imagine that the researchers had to kill it to determine the clam’s age by studying rings on its shell.

This species, the Arctica Atlantica, is particularly long lived — it has been known to survive some 200 and 300 years — and this particular specimen spent its protracted life burrowed in the sand 262 feet under water. When it first lodged itself down there, Shakespeare’s Hamlet was on stage at the Globe Theater, and the English were setting up camp in North America.