Greenland Sharks Can Live Over 400 Years

The secret to the Greenland shark's incredible longevity lies within its eyes. For decades, marine biologists could only speculate about the lifespan of this elusive deep-sea dweller because it lacks the hard, calcified tissues that are typically used to age other fish. The breakthrough came when scientists applied radiocarbon dating to the proteins in the shark's eye lens. These proteins form before the shark is born and remain unchanged throughout its life, creating a unique time capsule of the animal's age. This innovative method revealed that these vertebrates can live for at least 272 years, with one large female estimated to be around 392 years old.

This extreme lifespan is a result of a life lived in the slow lane. Thriving in the frigid, deep waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, the Greenland shark has an exceptionally slow metabolism. This adaptation to its cold environment leads to incredibly slow growth of less than one centimeter per year and a sluggish top speed under 2.9 kilometers per hour. The consequences of this slow development are staggering; a Greenland shark may not even reach sexual maturity until it is about 150 years old. This combination of a slow metabolic rate and delayed maturity is the key to its status as the longest-living vertebrate known to science.