While catching and tracking tiger sharks off the coast of Belize, researchers caught a Greenland shark (possibly a hybrid) that has lived in the deep sea for centuries.
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Confirmed to be a Greenland shark
Devanshi Kasana, a biologist and PhD candidate in Florida International University’s laboratory for predator ecology and conservation, says they suddenly saw a sluggish animal moving very slowly under the water’s surface. According to Kasana, the animal they saw is old enough to have existed in prehistoric times. At first, researchers thought it might be the fin shark, a dominant and fascinating deep-sea predator, but when they photograph it, they realize it’s a Greenland shark.
They live at least 250 years
The Greenland shark indeed belongs to a family of sharks that existed around 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the world.
Sharks spend most of their lives in the dark, thousands of feet under water, where they grow slowly, move slowly, and age slowly. In order to survive in the deep seas, where nutrients are scarce, they have to move slowly. Greenland sharks can survive at these depths for more than two and a half centuries, perhaps more. Most living vertebrates on earth. Scientists say that Greenland sharks live for at least 250 years, and can live for more than 500 years.
very very old
This relatively little-known species is known to grow in the deep seas in and around the Arctic. Biologists say they could potentially live in other deep-ocean regions. This includes the Caribbean. One of the researchers who noticed the shark says the shark looks very, very old.
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