Opua: the sad death of the world’s oldest individual
Opua: the sad death of the world’s oldest individual
“The death of an old man is never a tragedy.” is a line from a movie I saw recently, but I can’t quite recall which. An old man myself, I agree entirely. But the death of the world’s oldest known individual, of which I heard on the radio this morning, if not a tragedy, at least strikes me as sad.
Elizabeth was queen of England when this individual was born--not this Elizabeth, the one of England’s greatness, the one who saw Shakespeare give live performances.
Trees live longer and so does coral, but these are colonies, not individuals.
A research party was dredging off Iceland when it brought up a clam whose age was later established at more than 400 years. This is done in the same way that the age of trees is determined: by counting annual growth rings. The clam was said to be of only average size. The scientist who was being interviewed said that because they had brought up only a small percentage of clams in that particular bed it is reasonable to believe that others down there are even older, perhaps age 500 or even 600. Unfortunately the study of the clam is destructive.
Imagine you are a clam. For 400 years you live on the seabed, minding your own clam business, and then along comes a dredge and you are clam-napped and killed in the name of science. I don’t think I would be as happy as a clam.
We don’t need to know everything.
I hope--but doubt--that they leave the rest of the clams alone.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007