Greenland sharks could be 512-year-old, making it the oldest shark known. Did you know that anything can live that long? Believe it or not, some of the rocks you see, on the ground or driving on the freeway could be millions if not billions of years old. We think of life as something fresh like us, but these sharks are possibly older than America!
Born small little things, they grow pretty large, weighing in over a ton. We don’t yet know how big they can get or even how old they could be. All that we have found out so far is that this specific set of research says this one Greenland shark could be anywhere for just over 200 to 512. That’s old.
They were able to figure out how old the shark was by carbon dating. Scientists and researchers gathered eyelid samples that are sometimes covered with a worm-like parasite. This evidence was taken and evaluated to find a wide date range of 200-500.
Sharks sometimes are able to present their age with thick growth rings, but with Greenland sharks the situation is different. Greenland sharks are not as hard and thick so they have no rings to show their growth. Maybe when we are able to clearly tell the date of this shark, we will be able to judge Greenland shark’s age by size.
The carbon test is accurate on land with a 1-3 year difference. In water, especially with a moving being, there are more factors involved which is why there is a 300-year gap.
Comment below if you want scientists to find out how to accurately predict the age of this Greenland shark, the world’s oldest shark.
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