World’s Oldest Animal Dies: 507-year-Old Mollusk Killed By Scientists Trying To Determine Its Age [VIDEO]
The world's oldest animal was not the age scientists originally claimed it to be, revealed by new research.
A mollusk named Ming was discovered and killed in 2006 off of Ireland by researchers, who initially believed it to be 405-years-old. The age, however, was recently revised after scientists used more refined methods to estimate when Ming was actually born, according to Newsmax.
Researched shows that Ming was 507 years old at time of death. The animal surpassed the record it initially set in the Guinness Book of World Records by 102 years.
"We got it wrong the first time and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then. But we are absolutely certain that we've got the right age now," ocean scientist Paul Butler said.
"The age has been confirmed with a variety of methods, including geochemical methods such as the carbon-14 method," marine biologist Rob Witbaard, of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, added. "So I am very confident that they have now determined the right age. If there is any error, it can only be one or two years."
An accepted method researchers use to determine the age of mollusks consists of counting the rings on its shell casing. Ming's age was initially reported incorrectly because more than 500 rings were packed onto the small shell.
Until a few decades ago, researchers also did not believe that an ocean mollusk could live beyond 100 years old.
