Anglers are gutted at the news of the death of legendary male carp Two Tone , who was found floating on the surface of Conningbrook Lake in Kent where he’d been domiciled for over 40 years. Two Tone was a survivor in a very reel sense – the 67lb 14oz Cyprinidae carpio (to give him his family name) had been caught about 50 times since 1983, by which point the scaley middle-ager already weighed some 30lbs.
Two Tone’s precise age can only be guessed at – Kentish carps cannot easily be carbon dated – but tortoises can (yes, that’s the rather lame technology hook to this posting). When Aldabra giant tortoise Adwaita , who started life in the 18th Century as a pet belonging to General Robert Clive of India (1725 –1774), keeled over in March 2006, a bit of his shell was subjected to the radiometric method that determined that he’d be born in 1751, making him a staggering 255 years old.
Engineering & Technology magazine 