Scientists: Greenland Shark live for 500 years or more – TASS

Oslo, 12 August. / Corr. Yuri Mikhailenko TASS /. Greenland Shark, which inhabit the waters of the North Atlantic, are the most long-lived of vertebrate animals that inhabit the Earth in our time.

As established Danish scientists, whose work got on the cover out-of-print of a new scientific magazine Science, some individuals of this species can live for 400-500 years.

Age of the oldest polar shark, which managed to study researchers, according to their estimates, is 392 years old, plus or minus 120 years. Thus, the predator-survivor could catch and times of decline Scandinavian settlements in Greenland, completely deserted by the end of the XV century, and its re-colonization of the Danes in two and a half centuries. Contemporary sharks could well be Christopher Columbus (1451-1506).

Eye-key

naturalist has long been known that Greenland sharks live for centuries, as increasing in size by only 0 , 5-1 cm per year, they can exceed 5 meters in length. Exact way to determine their age, however, not exist. Unlike many other animals, cartilaginous fishes (sharks and rays) are not formed otoliths in the inner ear – calcium deposits, which, as the tree-ring, can be accurately set their year of birth

. However, professor at Copenhagen and Oruhsskogo universities Jon Steffensenu and Jan Heine Meyer got the idea to expose radiocarbon analysis lens shark eyes, proteins which are formed in the embryo stage and remain unchanged throughout the life of the fish.

The ability to obtain samples and test devised way to introduce doctoral Steffensen Julius Nielsen surveyed 28 sharks. As it turned out, Greenland Shark reach sexual maturity only to 150 years and can live up to at least 272 years, easily overriding the previous record holder of the title of the main longevity among vertebrates – bowhead whale. To do this, type the maximum recorded age is 211 years.

The reason for the long life of sharks can be extremely slow metabolism of cold-blooded animals living in water with a temperature between -1 and 5 degrees Celsius. The same feature can be explained by the extreme slowness of the shark, not a gift received its official Latin name Somniosus microcephalus (Sleeper with little brain).

unexplored fish

Authors of scientific publications are hoping to attract public attention to the fate of the Greenland shark, as this species may soon enter the number of the vulnerable. They expect to learn more about the genetic features of the species, which may also explain the ability of these fish to live so long

“Greenland Shark -. One of the largest predatory sharks in the world, with its almost completely bypass the attention not caring about the protection of the species, or its role in the ecosystem of the North Atlantic – said Nielsen Danish scientific Internet portal videnskab.dk -. We know almost nothing about the biology of sharks neither as they hunt, or where feed young or how. far they swim, or the average number of live or what their numbers are. The reason is that this fish is not caught for commercial purposes “.

Since the Greenland shark, of which earlier drips grease for technical purposes today fall within the network only as a makeweight to the main unwanted catch, researchers are very few specimens for study. By eating the poisonous ammonia soaked compounds Greenland shark meat consumed only inhabitants of Iceland, cooking from it hákarl national delicacy.