Rare Deep-Sea Footage: World Record Holder Greenland Shark May Have Been Swimming Since the 1600s, Older Than Shakespeare’s Era.



    by jmike1256

    27 Comments

    1. AdventurousTip2880 on

      Looks fresh as a daisy! 

      Must be the cold water, I heard it’s good for the skin.

    2. > **Life history**

      > The Greenland shark has the longest known lifespan of all vertebrate species. **It is estimated that the species has a lifespan of at least 272 years, with the oldest individual estimated to be 392 ± 120 years of age. Estimates of age were made using radiocarbon dating of crystals within the lenses of their eyes.** Greenland sharks are estimated to reach sexual maturity around 150 years of age when females measure around 4.19 ± 0.04 m and males measure around 2.84 ± 0.06 m. One Greenland shark was tagged off the coast of Greenland in 1936 and recaptured in 1952. Its measurements suggest that Greenland sharks grow at a rate of 0.5–1 cm (1⁄4–1⁄2 in) per year. Efforts to conserve Greenland sharks are particularly important due to their extreme longevity, long maturation periods, and the heightened population sensitivity of large sharks. There are also efforts to understand exceptional Greenland shark longevity on the molecular level. Several published works suggest that expansion of transposable elements may play a crucial role. The longer duration and complexity of the female maturation reflect sex differences in reproductive biology. Females undergo seven distinct maturation stages: immature, developing, ripening, early gravid, midterm gravid, late gravid, and postnatal. Males undergo three stages: immature, maturing, and mature. These additional stages in females are necessary for their larger size, preparation for pregnancy, and the eventual birth of a large number of pups.

      **Reproduction**

      > Greenland sharks are born alive (a process known as ovoviviparity) after an estimated gestation period of 8–18 years. This extremely long gestation rate is crucial to understanding effective conservation strategies around the Greenland shark. Given the ongoing fishing pressures on Greenland sharks, their prolonged long gestation period and slow reproductive rate may severely limit their ability to recover from overfishing.

      > Estimates of litter size have varied across studies. Some suggest that this species produces up to 10 pups per litter, each initially measuring some 38–42 cm (15–17 in) in length. Based on these estimates, Greenland sharks may have between 200 and 700 pups during their lifetimes. Within a Greenland shark’s uterus, villi serve a key function in supplying oxygen to embryos. Oxygen supply is proposed to be a major limiting factor in the size of litters

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark

    3. Also helps that they taste very bad, and even toxic as well. That didn’t stop the iceland people to find a way to eat them though (by curing the meat for a long time).

    4. That’s fucking cool. Brother been cruising the currents for so long, he remembers when all this was green fields, before *big ocean* came along

    5. ‘Older Than Shakespeare’s Era’ 😂

      That would be William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)?

    6. Had to google this one. Longest living vertebrates with lifespans between 250-400 or even 500 years (carbon dating eye proteins).

      Most remarkably, they don’t reach sexual maturity for ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS! Puberty must be awful for them.

    7. Governmentwatchlist on

      Older than Shakespeare is an old thing to put in the title. As if the 1600’s are some abstract idea that doesn’t seem old enough.

    8. Too bad they didn’t think to strap a camera back then. Think of all the things we could have seen.

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