Table 1.

Chronological Age, Maximum Reported Life Span, and Physiological Characteristics of the Marine Bivalve Species Used in This Study

Species	Common Name	Average Chronological Age (y)	Maximum Life Span (y)	Maximum Size (mm)	Growth Rate (K (VBGF))	Mortality Rate (Z)	Age at Maturity (y)	Lifestyle	References
Arctica islandica	Ocean quahog, mahogany clam	∼22 (“young”)	405	118	0.02	0.03	7–14	Infaunal burrower	(15,21)
		∼100 (“aged”)
Mercenaria mercenaria	Northern quahog, hard clam	∼8 (“young”)	106	150	0.210	1.32	2–5	Infaunal burrower	(22,23); Iain Ridgway, unpublished data, 2010
		∼68 (“aged”)

Notes: Ridgway laboratory has recently identified a 106-year-old M mercenaria, which is greater than the maximum life span for this species (∼50 years) previously recorded in the literature. Thus, the new longevity record for this species is given in this table. Although recent analysis of data from 56 species of bivalves revealed a statistically significant positive impact of shell size maximum longevity (24), it is of note that A islandica has a smaller maximum shell size as compared with M mercenaria. VGBF = von Bertalanffy growth function.