It had already been confirmed as the oldest animal that ever lived.
But scientists who accidentally killed Ming the Mollusc, a deep sea clam dredged from the North Atlantic, have now discovered it was 100 years older than previously thought.
Following painstaking analysis, experts from Bangor University reckon the animal was born in 1499, making it 507 when it was found.
The ocean quahog was discovered off the coast of Iceland in 2006. Unaware of its age, scientists placed it in a freezer before opening and killing it by mistake.
A quahog’s shell grows a layer every summer when the water is warmer and food plentiful. By counting the number of rings visible on the inside of Ming’s shell, scientists initially thought it was around 400 years old.
However, after analysing the clam more closely, the experts now believe Ming, who was named after the dynasty thought to be ruling China at the time of its birth, was a century older.
‘We got it wrong the first time and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then,’ Paul Butler, from Bangor University, told ScienceNordic.
The findings mean the mollusc was born seven years after Columbus discovered America.
GOOD TO KNOW: WHY IS THERE SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE LIFESPANS OF CREATURES?
While the lifespans of different species may seem random, there is a pattern. Generally, big creatures live longer than small ones and this goes for plants as well as animals.
At one end of the scale are mice and shrews, which live just a couple of years, while at the other are large animals like rhinos, hippos, giant tortoises, lions and elephants, which have life expectancies measured in decades – or even centuries.
Some Galapagos tortoises, for instance, have been recorded to reach nearly 200 years.
The bowhead whales have been found recently with antique harpoons embedded in their skulls dating from the 1790s.
Unless these were a freak, this means that in the sea today there may be large, intelligent animals that pre-date the invention of the railway engine.
Other Methuselahs include orange roughly, a Pacific fish increasingly popular as food.
These cold-water fish can live to more than 150 years old, meaning that your dinner could date back to a time when Queen Victoria was still middle-aged.
But there are some interesting anomalies. Humans, for instance, live longer than is to be expected for our size.
Marine biologist Doris Abele believes that Ming’s ability to live for centuries could be down to the creatures slow metabolism.
