400 years a female shark boreal saw the light, and still roams these seas ago in the icy waters of Greenland.
to get an idea, this it copy of Somniosus microcephalus born in the same era who died Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, the crowns of Scotland and England were united and began the Thirty Years’ War.
This makes it, according to a recent study, the longest vertebrate that ever existed on Earth.
to determine the age of the Greenland shark, experts from the University of Copenhagen used the technique of radiocarbon dating.
And this is not the only amazing thing curiously or at least they found.
1. sexual age
In the study published in the journal Science, the researchers studied the ages of 28 animals, and estimated that the age of these creatures was about four centuries
“We suspected we were dealing with a very unusual animal,” he told the BBC Julius Nielsen, a marine biologist and head of research.
“But I think all who were involved in this research were surprised to learn that these sharks were so old, “he said.
these sharks grow one centimeter per year and reach sexual maturity at 150 years.
experts believe that these animals can only reach sexual maturity when they measure 4 meters long, which means that-pace crecen- must wait a century and a half to mate.
that is, the specimen photo began playing at the time that the astronomer Thomas Wright published his “original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe” which suggested that the Milky way was a star system disk-shaped and the solar system was at the center it.
2. Soft-bodied swimmers slow (very soft)
Greenland sharks are immense beasts that can reach a length of 6 meters long.
they are swimming very slowly in the waters of northern Atlantic ocean and the Arctic near Greenland and Iceland (hence its name).
with this slow pace of life, and a rate fairly relaxed growth, always thought that these creatures could live many years.
But so far had not been possible to determine their age.
Some of these shark species, such as white, have a calcified tissue that can be used to know how long take life.
“But Greenland is a very, very soft animal,” Nielsen said.
“There is no hard parts in the body where they can deposit layers of growth so it was thought that the age could not investigate. “
3. The eye of the shark
However, the team found an ingenious way to determine the age.
“the eye lens shark is composed of a specialized material containing metabolically inert proteins,” said the expert.
This means that once synthesized in the body, these proteins are not renewed more, which allowed experts use the technique of radiocarbon dating.
And it was with this technique determined that the largest female, 5 meters, was also the longest.
Because carbon dating does not produce exact dates, it is believed to have been born between 1501 and 1744, but the most likely date is in the early seventeenth century.
after surviving centuries of wars, revolutions and transformations in the world, most of the 28 sharks studied died after being caught by fishing nets .
OTHER FACTS
Due to their extreme longevity, Greenland sharks should still be recovering from intensive fishing which were submitted before the Second World War.
These creatures are not the most long-lived there in the animal world, for gold the older it takes a clam called Ming who came to meet 507 years .
And speaking of humans, the title of the longest man-take Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived 122 years and died in 1997.
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