Local news for Shannon, MS continually updated from thousands of sources on the web.
Amazing chart shows the planet's longest-living animals. For humans, reaching the age of 100 is a rare milestone. For some animals, however, it's hardly uncommon. Not all plants and animals age the way we do, and some are built for much longer lifespans than ours. Of the 10 animals that live the longest, all of them live well past 100, according to a recent post in Discovery News. At the top of the list, the ocean quahog (aka the clam) lives to be 400 years old, while the runner-up bowhead whale lives to be 211.
Herewith, six of the most famously long-lived individual animals: 1. Dynastic Clam. You may have heard of Ming, the deep-sea clam named after the Chinese dynasty during which it was born. When it died in 2006, it was believed to be the oldest living animal ever recorded. This ocean quahog, scientifically known as Arctica islandica, lived for 507 years and came to an inglorious end. In 2006, scientists accidentally killed the clam when they dredged it up off the coast of Iceland and froze it, along with many others, for transport back to the lab for climate change research.