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| - Ming is considered the oldest living non-colonial animal ever. She was discovered at 507 years old, according to 2013 research. “Non-colonial” refers to all animals excluding corals, which can live for up to 4,000 years and in some cases slightly longer. Corals are made of many animals called polyps that collectively form an organism.
The story of a quahog clam nicknamed "Ming" captured headlines in 2006 — and again in 2013 — after scientists discovered that the mollusk was believed to be the world's oldest living animal ever to have been recorded.
Ming's story has been shared on several social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, collectively garnering tens of thousands of views. On Nov. 21, 2024, a Reddit user shared a photo of Ming in a post that has since been upvoted more than 35,000 times as of this writing.
In short, Ming was a real clam whose age at death was determined to be 507 years old. Therefore, the claim made in the above social media posts is correct, which is why we have rated it as true.
Ming's Discovery and Age Calculation
In 2006, scientists from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences in Wales, U.K., published a study on a quahog clam, scientific name Arctica islandica, dredged off the north coast of Iceland. The following year, the Bangor team initially determined the clam to be between 405 and 410 years old after studying the annual growth rings in the shell, as reported by Guinness World Records.
But in 2013, another team of Bangor researchers reported that the clam could be "accurately determined" as 507 years old at the time of its death.
Guinness World Records said Ming, which was named "after the Chinese dynasty in power when the clam was born," is the "longest-lived, non-colonial animal ever discovered." Non-colonial refers to all animals excluding corals, which are made up of many animals called polyps that can live collectively as an organism for thousands of years.
Quahogs are bivalve mollusks found in the Atlantic Ocean between 25 and 1,300 feet deep. The clams bury into sediment and it is here that they are dredged for commercial fisheries and often made into soups like clam chowder.
Like a tree, clams can be aged by counting the annual growth rings in their shells. Though researchers initially thought Ming was just over 400 years old, "more sophisticated" aging techniques were used in 2013 to determine that it was 507 years old.
Shown are the internal growth rings in an ocean quahog shell, with the black bar representing .3 millimeters. (University of Bangor)
The discrepancy of age occurred in how the clam's rings were counted. In 2006, some of the bands were so narrow that they could not be visually separated from each other. Seven years later, the scientists analyzed the mollusk using radiocarbon dating to determine its age of 507 years.
Ming's estimated birth year of 1499 means that it was born when Queen Elizabeth I was the reigning monarch in England, wrote Guinness World Records.
Other clams analyzed in the study were found to be more than 300 years old, according to the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. The museum wrote:
The age of these animals was determined by counting growth lines in the shell. Although growth lines can be seen on the outside of the shells, most of the bands on long-lived animals are much too close together to count in this way. Instead, sections were taken through the shell and studied under a microscope to count the growth increments – like counting tree rings.
Understanding the lifespan of the quahog clam helps to inform a broader understanding of climatic changes over time and provides "unprecedented insight into the history of the oceans," according to Bangor University.
To study Ming's rings, the science team had to open the clam, thus killing it. However, the record still persists.
Ming on display at Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd, or National Museum Cardiff, in Wales. (National Museum Cardiff)
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