Slowest growth rate (Animal kingdom)
Last updated: April 13, 2020 at 0:21 am
The deepsea clam (Tindaria callistiformis) grows as little as 8.4 mm (one-third of an inch) in 100 years. The growth rate of this very small saltwater bivalve was measured by radiometric dating, a.k.a. radioactive dating, which measures the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products.
Turekian KK, Cochran JK, Kharkar DP, et al. Slow growth rate of a deep-sea clam determined by 228Ra chronology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 1975;72(7):2829-2832.
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Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.
