R.I.P. Ming, World’s Oldest Animal

November 8, 2007 /

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell

~ Shakespeare

I learned via Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me the other day, of the sad tale of Ming, the world’s oldest animal. Ming, so named because he is believed to have been born during the Ming dynasty, was between 405 and 410 years old, and was old enough that he could have been served to Shakespeare himself, had he been dredged up a bit sooner.

Hearing the story of Ming amazed me, because I had no idea that any animal could live that long. But it also made me sad at the disregard that humans have for other living things, because of course, what did the scientists do with Ming, once they had pulled it up from the water? They killed it, so that they could count the rings, and figure out how old it was. Who knows what age Ming could have reached, if left alone.  The Register perhaps said it best:

We can conclude from this that to live a long and healthy life, it would be advisable for a person to avoid being sliced in two by someone intent on counting one’s rings.

Poor Ming, we hardly knew ye.

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