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.
Challenged in September 2010 to come up with interesting facts every day by one of my work colleagues, I've since entertained him and those near his desk with bits of information dredged from my brain. Some of my audience went on holiday and still wanted the facts so I started posting here, every day I do one of them, usually Monday through Friday, and the occasional post on the weekend. I post these facts here almost every day and you will find two posts on some days to make any missing days.
Showing posts with label whales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whales. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Friday, July 08, 2011
Today’s interesting fact has to do with Krill.
Krill are small shrimp like invertebrates that are found in all the oceans of the world and they feed many large animals, such as whales and basking sharks as well as many smaller species.
It is estimated that if you took all the Antarctic krill and placed them on one side of a balancing scale and put all the humans on the planet on the other side of the scale, the Krill would weigh more.
Krill are small shrimp like invertebrates that are found in all the oceans of the world and they feed many large animals, such as whales and basking sharks as well as many smaller species.
It is estimated that if you took all the Antarctic krill and placed them on one side of a balancing scale and put all the humans on the planet on the other side of the scale, the Krill would weigh more.
Labels:
Basking sharks,
Humans,
Krill,
Shrimp,
whales
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