A few months back, scientists found a very old shark swimming in the North Atlantic Ocean. They knew this shark was old, but they were amazed to learn it might be around 512 years old. That would make it the oldest living vertebrate in the world.
Greenland sharks, like this one, are known to live much longer than other animals. They grow very slowly and don’t even become adults until they’re about 150 years old. Some have been known to live nearly 400 years. But this shark, at 512 years, is a new record.
This means the shark was born in 1505—before Shakespeare was even born. The discovery was published in a research study. A marine biologist named Julius Nielsen and his team found this out by measuring radiocarbon in the shark’s eye lenses. That’s how they figured out its age.
“This shark is truly special. It’s among the oldest creatures on Earth,” the biologist said.
The study showed that Greenland sharks live even longer than scientists once believed. To learn more, Nielsen and his team studied 28 Greenland sharks. The way they determined the age of these sharks is much more accurate than before. Earlier, scientists guessed a shark’s age based on its size. Since Greenland sharks only grow about 0.4 inches per year, that method wasn’t very precise, especially as the sharks got older.
For years, researchers struggled to figure out how long these sharks live. Steven Campana, an expert from the University of Iceland, shared how surprising it is that they didn’t know if the sharks lived 20 years or 1,000 years, despite being a top predator in Arctic waters.
Julius Nielsen has spent much of his career learning about these sharks. He even showed a picture of one eating a polar bear carcass. He also mentioned that many of these sharks have little parasites stuck to their eyes, making them look a bit unhealthy.
Because Greenland sharks live for such a long time, they travel around the ocean and don’t stay in one place. Scientists found that many of the sharks share similar genes, suggesting that they all come from the same place and spread out over time. But how these sharks reproduce is still a mystery. What scientists do know is that these sharks prefer the cold Arctic waters.
Now, scientists are eager to learn why the Greenland shark lives so much longer than other animals. They hope that studying the shark’s genes might help them understand more about long life spans in other species too.
“This is the oldest vertebrate on Earth,” said the biologist. “We’re working with scientists from Denmark, Greenland, the USA, and China to study the shark’s entire genetic code. This might help us understand why this shark outlives other sharks and vertebrates.”
When asked how the shark could live over 500 years, Nielsen guessed that the cold water and slow metabolism might be the key. But he admits that more research is needed to know for sure.