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The Worlds Oldest Living Creature
- Thread starter JohnS_323
- Start date
Cool to see something lived that long Althought i feel bad for the clam... I scanned through it so i must of missed it but i didn't see anything about the size of the clam it must of been huge!
malulu said:
If the death was the result of a genuine scientific research (including getting statistical information about the age), while death of any species is regretable, it might serve the "greater good" - greater understanding and potentially environmental protection.
This is nothing compared to, couple of years ago, Japanese government's "authorisation" of killing of 500 minkey whales for "scientific research" (in one fishing season).
debfife said:
Well, nowhere in the article did it say that they killed it just to find the age for the Guinness book of records. Age would be just one of the parameters that you would measure in a specimen. And YES, knowing it can be highly beneficial and for the "greater good" for many reasons. You can see it as a part of a aging process, where, in the shells, just like in the trees, the "age rings" can tell you a plenty about the history of the environment. You could see what was deposited and when in the shells and how much. From that you can infer plenty about the history of the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the environment. By correlating those parameters with current trends you could determine if there is a need for human action. Also, from a statistical point of view, age alone is a very important piece of information because it allows you to monitor the statistical distribution of the age of the species. It can tell you a lot about the current trends based on the knowledge about rate of growth, reproductive age and reproductive potential and average life span due to the predation, environmental shifts or old age. And finally, any kind of biological analysis of the particular specimen is useless if you don't know the approximate age of the specimen.
So, in the end, finding the age is a very important from scientific point of view. Finding that it is the oldest living thing for the book of records is useless and meaningless. Not to mention that since every anemone can potentially live forever, and maybe someone from this club in NJ has one that has lived for thousands of years.
Of course, my premise in the argument is that scientific research is beneficial on the whole scale and that knowledge, gained even by the death of individual specimen, can be beneficial for the overall species. We will leave philosophical arguments on that point for another thread ;D
I hardly think the death of one clam, regardless of age, is cause for concern.
I have done experimental research on animals...in fact I am still doing experimental research on animals. No one likes sacrificing animals for the sake of obtaining valuable information but it is necessary.
Now...if they are able to determine certain weather patterns based on the shell of this clam or they are able to predict high and low seasons for growth of marine life, then there is a possibility the information they get will not only have a beneficial aspect on that particular species but with marine life in general. Besides they didnt kill this clam "just to see how old it was" as one above poster eluded to...thats obsurd.
People are funny. They want the best medicine, the most advanced surgery, a clean environment, you name it. But once the ugly truth behind the methods of obtaining that are revealed there is an uproar.
Machiavelli. The end justifies the means.
I have done experimental research on animals...in fact I am still doing experimental research on animals. No one likes sacrificing animals for the sake of obtaining valuable information but it is necessary.
Now...if they are able to determine certain weather patterns based on the shell of this clam or they are able to predict high and low seasons for growth of marine life, then there is a possibility the information they get will not only have a beneficial aspect on that particular species but with marine life in general. Besides they didnt kill this clam "just to see how old it was" as one above poster eluded to...thats obsurd.
People are funny. They want the best medicine, the most advanced surgery, a clean environment, you name it. But once the ugly truth behind the methods of obtaining that are revealed there is an uproar.
Machiavelli. The end justifies the means.
I guess this topic could be debated for ages...but this quote from the article:
Leads me to believe they have specimens that they have killed, but have not done anything with them...to me this seems worthless, so I guess they get another clam to stick on the shelf while they go out and look for another.
Leads me to believe they have specimens that they have killed, but have not done anything with them...to me this seems worthless, so I guess they get another clam to stick on the shelf while they go out and look for another.
ReefDrumz said:
Give me a break...now youre reaching.
You know nothing more than these scientists have other animals in their possession that still need to be studied.
A little insight...you dont go out and collect specimens, run back and examine them, go back out and get another...
Its like trick-or-treating. Go out and collect, then sit down at a later time and see what you have.
Everyone needs to stop being so naive.
Research needs to be done. Maybe the article could have been written to give us a little more perspective. That definitely seems to be lacking from the content of the article itself. From the facts as they were presented it seems worthless. Lets hope that there was some greater good attained. For all of our sakes.
Since there isn't really enough information, lets try not to let this turn into an uproar.
Since there isn't really enough information, lets try not to let this turn into an uproar.