That’s in the journal Science .
The shark is the oldest vertebrate animal that has ever been discovered. Until now was believed that the oldest species in this category was the bowhead whale. That may be about two hundred years old.
The biologists at the University of Copenhagen have studied deceased Greenland sharks were using radiocarbon dating to determine the age of the animals.
By testing atomic weapons under water in 1955 is carbon-14 (an isotope formed ed by a nuclear reaction.) Entered the eco-system. This is reflected in the body of animals born in the 1960s. On the basis of the age of the animals could be partly determined.
They compared the age with the growth of the sharks and were thus able to determine the age of a shark is approximately at a certain length. A Greenland shark grows about one centimeter per year.
Average
On average the 28 studied Greenland sharks 163 years, writing the biologists.
The shark is about 5 meters long, making it one of the largest carnivorous sharks. They occur mainly in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
The animals owe their age probably partly to their preference for deep waters, where it is only a few degrees above zero. That would result in a slower metabolism, so animals are older
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