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"\nCan there\nreally be a living creature that’s over five centuries old? It's going to seem\nimpossible, but scientists have discovered one such beast living within the\nNorthern Atlantic Ocean: a Greenland Shark.\n\n\n\nIt’s long\nbeen known that this shark is older than most, but scientists had no idea just\nhow old he was until recently. Now that they’ve pinpointed his age to be 512\nyears old, he’s claimed the title of world’s oldest living vertebrate.\n\n\n\nImg: 12tomatoes.com\n\n\n\nGreenland\nsharks are one among the slowest growing species, and don’t actually reach full\nmaturity until they’re over 150 years old. They typically live for a very long time.\nSo far scientists knew that they could live more than 400 years. \n\n\n\n\n\nThis\n512-year-old shark estimated age means he was born way back within the 1500s!\n\n\n\nWhat was in\n1500s ?\n\n\n\nImg: 12tomatoes.com\n\n\n\nBut how can they\npinpoint his age? He’s still alive, so they can’t examine his bones.\n\n\n\nIt’s fairly\nsimple.\n\n\n\n\n\nMarine\nbiologists measured the amounts of radiocarbon within the eye lenses of the shark\nto calculate his age.\n\n\n\nImg: 12tomatoes.comImg: 12tomatoes.com\n\n\n\nIt was not\nthe case with this shark though. They studied more of Greenland sharks while\ndoing their research. As a result of their hard work, their they are getting\nmore accurate results than in the past. \n\n\n\nMeasuring an\nanimal’s age was more of a hit or miss than science, but times are changing. Scientists\nused to use the animal’s size to determine their age, but it was not accurate\nat all. As their size can be dependent on a lot of factors, where did they live,\nwhat did they eat etc.\n\n\n\nImg: 12tomatoes.com\n\n\n\nIn addition,\nthe Greenland sharks doesn’t stay at the same place for their whole life. It’s\nin their nature to roam around.\n\n\n\nGenetic analysis of the Greenland shark shows that they probably started off at the same area, but they migrated to other places. Scientists are still determining additional reasons why the Greenland shark lives such a lot longer than other animals they’ve studied, besides their slow-growing nature.\n\n\n"
<https://exodif.com/scientists-discover-512-y-o-shark-which-makes-it-the-oldest-living-animal-on-the-planet/>