Meet the World's Oldest Vertebrate, an Elusive 512-Year-Old Greenland Shark
For over 50 years, explorers of the dark waters of the North Atlantic have been aware of the existence of a mysterious shark that grows only a few centimeters every few years — yet can reach lengths of up to five meters. There was only one explanation: these things must be absolutely ancient. For decades, however, the sharks eluded the dogged efforts of scientists to determine their age. But then, the University of Copenhagen biologist Julius Nielsen came along and revealed the sharks’ secret.
Greenland sharks, he reported in a 2016 article in Science, live for centuries — in one case, even up to 512 years. That’s older than America. That’s older than newspaper. Older than the telescope.
Nielsen’s monumental discovery is back in the news again after he posted a photo to his Instagram in early December announcing he had finally completed his Ph.D. thesis — a whopping 142 pages on the Greenland shark. In late November, the New Yorker also dove into the details of his work.
