Never mind, we'll get a new one. A team of scientists from Bangor university announced that the worldâs oldest known animal was an Icelandic clam known as âMingâ, but accidentally killed it whilst trying to verify its age. Ming was a species of Icelandic clam known as an âocean quahogâ and was estimated to have been born in 1499, making it 507-years-old, with its name coming from the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368 â 1644) during which it was born. It was taken from an Icelandic seabed in 2006, with researchers believing that it was just 405-years-old after counting the rings on the hinge of the clam â a difficult task after such a long period crowding them so closely together. The scientists opened the clamâs shell to check the age more carefully, killing the animal, and in the process finding that it was much older than they originally thought.