A Greenland shark may have been alive around the time Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, some 500 years ago, NPR reports.
Sharks in the cold Arctic seas can live up to at least 272 years old, but a new study says one Greenland shark scientists have caught may be as much as 512 years old – longer than any animal with a backbone. Before this discovery, the oldest vertebrate was the bowhead whale, known to have a lifespan of up to 211 years.
The massive Greenland shark can grow up to 16 feet long, and is carnivorous. It has remained a mystery, with very little known about its habits. Julius Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark says there have been clues that Greenland sharks grow very slowly, maybe even less than one centimeter a year, suggesting that these giant sea dwellers are quite old.
Nielsen says they expected the sharks to be old, but it was “a very big surprise to learn that it was actually the oldest vertebrate animal.”
The researchers were able to study 28 female Greenland sharks that were taken by research vessels at sea as a by-catch between 2010 to 2013. They used radiocarbon dating on the sharks’ eyes to determine age.
There’s some uncertainty regarding the estimated age range, but Nielsen says the most probable age for the oldest shark they studied was around 390 years. He adds it was 95% sure that the range was between 272 and 512 years. The researchers think that the sharks reach sexual maturity at around 150 years old.
Steven Austad, a biologist who studies aging at the University of Birmingham, Alabama, says the study “certainly moves back the vertebrate longevity record by a substantial amount.”
The lifespan of this shark is only surpassed by the hardy ocean quahog – clams that proclaim their age with rings on their shells. Experts have found that quahogs can live as long as 507 years. Austad has been studying the quahog, which has a beating heart.
The quahogs, the bowhead whale, and Greenland sharks all live out their long years in cold northern waters, Austad says, which means low temperatures might have something to do with their unusual lifespans.
But Austad says it’s probably not just the cold, as there would be plenty of short-lived creatures in the ocean with these species, but it might play a major factor.
The study was published in the journal Science.
