In a discovery that has stunned scientists and redefined biological limits, the **Greenland shark** has been identified as the **oldest living vertebrate ever recorded**.
Using radiocarbon dating on the shark’s eye lens — a part of the body that remains unchanged since birth — researchers estimated the age of a 5-meter female shark to be approximately **392 years old**, with a margin of error suggesting she could be **up to 512 years old**.
This means the shark was born in the 17th century, around the time of Galileo and Shakespeare, long before the Industrial Revolution or even the founding of the United States — silently roaming our oceans for nearly half a millennium.
🔹 The Greenland shark grows at an incredibly slow rate of just 1 cm per year and doesn’t reach sexual maturity until the age of 150.
🔹 This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of vertebrate longevity but **challenges what we thought was possible in the natural world**.
Today, this ancient marvel faces **growing threats from climate change**, particularly warming ocean waters — endangering a species that has thrived in icy depths for centuries.
More than just a sea creature, the Greenland shark is **a living historical archive** — a silent witness to centuries of Earth’s evolution, and perhaps, a final reminder of the mysteries we have yet to explore before they vanish forever.
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* Greenland shark
* Oldest vertebrate
* Radiocarbon dating
* Marine biology discovery
* Deep sea life
* Longevity in nature
* Climate change and oceans
* Slowest growing shark
* Living fossil
* Marine conservation