07/07/2025
And who suggested for one minute that I was old - David :)
A Greenland shark has been alive since the 1620s!
Radiocarbon dating has revealed a shocking discovery: a female Greenland shark, which has lived since the 1620s, making her the oldest vertebrate ever recorded. These Arctic giants grow at an incredibly slow rate of just 1 cm per year, taking up to 150 years to reach sexual maturity. Their extreme longevity challenges our understanding of marine life and opens new questions about deep-sea biology.
This groundbreaking finding, published in Science, has rewritten biology textbooks and highlighted how little we know about the life cycles of deep-sea creatures. As the world’s oceans warm, the lives of these slow-growing creatures become even more critical to study. Understanding their resilience and unique biology could provide valuable insights into marine ecosystems as they face the pressures of climate change.
The Greenland shark’s story is a reminder of the mysteries still hidden deep in our oceans and the need for continued research to protect these ancient species.
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