Today’s interesting fact has to do with the oldest living animal found so far.

It is a Quahog clam, scientific name Artica islandica.

Clams are like trees, in that they lay down a new layer of shell every year, just like trees do.

Trees will sometimes lay down two rings a year, but they have never found this discrepancy with clams so far.

This latest specimen is between 405 and 410 years old.

The oldest mammal is thought to be a either a Blue whale or a Bow whale.

As we get older, the lenses of our eyes get thicker; a layer of cells gets laid down every year.

By counting these layers, you can determine the age of the animal.

Bow and Blue whales grow to enormous sizes, and it takes time for an animal to get so big.

Counting these lens layers they have gotten an estimated age of 178 years for one Bow whale, which means that when we were still hunting these animals in wooden boats, at least one of them was an adult.

This could be one reason it is so difficult to get near Bow whales.