Wedding Ring

 

A quahog is a type of clam – round, grey and tasty – found in the north Atlantic. Every year it lives, a quahog adds another ring to its shell. The shell can show how long the creature lived, and also carry information about its living conditions. In 2006, researchers from Bangor University, Wales dredged some 200 quahogs off the northern coast of Iceland. The clams were frozen for later study. In 2007, a cross-section of one of the clams revealed it had lived 507 years – possibly the oldest individual animal. The Sunday Times gave the clam the name “Ming,” as it had been alive since the Ming dynasty. Researchers called it “Hafrún,” an Icelandic name which might mean “ocean mystery.” Ming/Hafrún was alive while Da Vinci was painting the Virgin of the Rocks and Henry VIII was learning his ABC’s. It’s sad the clam was casually dispatched before anyone knew how old it was. Today, it might have been 523.