Dear Geoff,
I do not agree with you on the 20-year-old estimate. The growth of
these worms is not linear : younger worms grow over 10 cm per year but
the bigger ones grow only less than a cm per year. It is based on this
non-linear relationship that the lowest estimate of 80 years was obtained.
As for the upper estimate, one cannot say. Indeed some worms did not
grow, most of them grew very little. It seems that these guys grow by
"burst", keeping the same length for a year (or more) and then growing
(a few rings) in a short time. The worms which did not grow were alive
when collected but could have been dying too. This is a very serious
work, statistically robust. I think we can rely on the 250-year-old estimate
for the age of a 2-m long worm. One can only dream about the age of the
bigger ones.
So congrats guys, this was a hard and long work (have you looked
at the number of points necessary to do these calculations.
Bergquist, Derk C. , Frederick M. Williams, & Charles R. Fisher. 2000.
Longevity record for deep-sea invertebrate. The growth rate of a marine
tubeworm is tailored to different environments. -- Nature, 403(6769):499-
500.
Wormly yours, Stephane
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