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Scientists Kill World’s Oldest Animal to Find Its Age
Quote:A group of researchers working in Iceland in 2006 discovered a really old clam. They wanted to figure out just how old it could be, so they decided to open it up and count the growth rings along the clam’s hinge ligament. They got their answer — and it was shocking. They said the clam was 405 years old.
They’d found the oldest living animal in the world (excluding primitive metozoans). Only, it wasn’t living anymore, because opening it up had killed the clam.
http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/20...d-its-age/
Science has a tragic flaw at least some of the time.
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(11-20-2013, 03:48 PM)Alram Wrote: Scientists Kill World’s Oldest Animal to Find Its Age
I dispute this. Sponges are also animals, and often live longer. Still, I cringe when I hear of anything being needlessly killed.
(11-20-2013, 03:48 PM)Alram Wrote: Science has a tragic flaw at least some of the time.
Yes. To quote Crichton, "Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy—or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves" (Crichton, 369).
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.
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(11-20-2013, 07:05 PM)kandrathe Wrote: (11-20-2013, 03:48 PM)Alram Wrote: Scientists Kill World’s Oldest Animal to Find Its Age
I dispute this. Sponges are also animals, and often live longer. Still, I cringe when I hear of anything being needlessly killed.
Well there you go. Another scientific error. Coral are also longer lived.
