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headline disperse on the cyberspace today ( Dec. 14 ) breathlessly described the discovery of a 512 - yr - old shark — but they ’re a little off the grade .
The fauna in question — aGreenland shark — does , in fact , live to be several 100 old , according to a study that was write in August 2016 in the journalScience , and which was referenced in the intelligence coverage .
A Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), swims under ice near northern Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic.
But the researchers’analysis of 28 female Greenland sharksdid not identify one of them as over 500 age old . optic tissue paper analytic thinking presented a probability kitchen range suggesting that the shark were at least 272 year old , and could potentially be as much as 512 years old , Live Sciencepreviously reported . [ Extreme Life on Earth : 8 Bizarre Creatures ]
Greenland shark ( Somniosus nanocephaly ) are native to the Arctic and North Atlantic , and can grow to be up to 24 foot ( 7 meters ) long and weigh up to 2,645 pounds ( 1,200 kilograms ) , according to theGreenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group(GEERG ) . They areslow - prompt fish , cruising at about 1 foundation per 2d ( 0.3 time / irregular ) , and contact deepness of 9,101 animal foot ( 2,774 m ) , GEERG reported .
For some shark species , scientist use bony structures such ascalcified vertebraeto track their age , reading rings that form in the hardened tissue paper as the shark ages . But Greenland shark are " subdued shark " whose vertebrae do n’t harden enough to organize telling age markers , so scientists need a newfangled method acting to determine how old the sharks were , Julius Nielsen , writer of the 2016 field of study about the shark , told Live Science that year .
The scientists used carbon 14 date to measurecarbon isotopesabsorbed by Greenland shark ' eye tissue , working with shark that were captured as bycatch , the survey author reported .
The tissue gave them a range for the shark ' age — they were at least 272 years old , and as much as 512 years old . The two heavy sharks — and probably the old — were guess to be 335 and 392 year quondam , severally . And the midpoint of the range — " the most probable single - yr age in the 272- to 512 - year range " — was 390 years , Nielsen tell Live Science . [ Photos : The World ’s Oldest Living Things ]
" It ’s important to keep in mind there ’s some uncertainty with this estimate , " Nielsen said . " But even the low-spirited part of the age range — at least 272 year — still makes Greenland shark the longest - living vertebrate get it on to science . "
As long - subsist as they may be , Greenland sharks do n’t even fare close to the longevity ofhydra — fresh water polyp . These unassuming - count invertebrate unceasingly rectify their own cells , and are thought to be capable to live everlastingly under the right conditions .
animate being that float the sea depths are notoriously difficult to observe in their natural habitat , and there is still much to be learn about many mintage that have been known to science for ten — and Greenland sharks are no exception , Nielsen told Live Science in 2016 .
" Almost all of their biology is a mystery , " he say .
Original clause onLive skill .
