Ocean Quahog

A quahog clam named Ming was 507 years old when researchers accidentally killed it while determining its age. This makes ocean quahogs the longest-lived non-colonial animals known - organisms that were alive during the Ming Dynasty and would still be alive today if left undisturbed. The clam achieved this longevity by doing almost nothing, very slowly, in very cold water.

Quahog longevity correlates directly with water temperature. The coldest populations live longest. In near-freezing North Atlantic waters, metabolism slows to a crawl - the clam grows imperceptibly, reproduces minimally, and simply persists. This isn't dynamic survival; it's passive endurance. The quahog doesn't fight its environment or exploit opportunities. It just exists, year after year, century after century.

The clam's growth rings provide climate records like tree rings - each ring represents a year, and ring width correlates with water conditions. A 500-year-old quahog contains a 500-year climate archive in its shell. The organism's longevity creates incidental scientific value - the longer it lives, the more data it accumulates.

The business parallel is that extreme longevity in stable environments often comes from doing less, not more. Companies that persist for centuries in traditional industries - certain banks, insurers, trading houses - often share quahog characteristics: slow metabolism, minimal innovation, passive persistence. They don't disrupt; they endure. Sometimes the winning strategy isn't racing forward but simply outlasting everyone else.