The oldest animal ever found could reveal whether a crucial ocean current will collapse

[Zorro]

There was nothing outwardly impressive about the clam sitting on the deck of the research vessel Bjarni Sæmundsson. The dull, gray creature, dredged from the muddy bottom of the North Atlantic, was no different from the millions of mollusks caught and cooked each year for chowder.

But this clam was destined for something greater than a soup pot.

The humble bivalve — nicknamed Hafrún, an Icelandic word meaning “ocean mystery” — was the longest-living individual animal ever found by scientists. For 507 years it bathed in the shifting currents off the coast of Iceland, watching the surrounding water become more or less salty, enduring the rise and fall of ocean temperatures. And as the years passed, it recorded those observations in the molecular makeup of its shell, tracking the trajectory of a changing planet from a spot no human could reach.

Once it had been viewed beneath a microscope, Hafrún the clam would turn into a historian, giving researchers new insight into the mysteries of the deep sea. It would serve as a benchmark, allowing experts to make sense of changes they see in the ocean today. And it would become an oracle — helping scientists predict whether human-caused warming has pushed the Atlantic’s sensitive circulation system toward a tipping point that could devastate the modern world.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/12/24/amoc-collapse-system-climate/

[WhiteTara]

1. 507 year life for a clam. The things it must have seen.

[Hekate]

5. Mostly sediment settling and fish passing by, one would imagine....

[WhiteTara]

7. I was imagining shipwrecks

and dead bodies with cement blocks

[Hekate]

8. That, too!

[Think. Again.]

2. No paywall link...

https://archive.is/Z2KnT

[orleans]

4. thanks for the link. nt

[Blue_Tires]

3. Well, good thing we've elected a bunch of anti-science morons

🙄

[Hekate]

6. This is fascinating. TY