Tag Archives: Greenland shark
Greenland shark named longest-living vertebrate living up to 400 yrs
A student job with the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources inspired Julius Nielsen, lead author of the new study, to research the Greenland shark, which roams the chill waters of the North Atlantic. “I encountered the sharks here for the first time, and I was fascinated that so little were known about such large sharks,” Nielsen said. They are the largest fish native to Arctic seas, with adults typically measuring between 13 and 16 feet and females consistently outgrowing the males. Still, their biology was mostly a mystery, explained Nielsen. “For example, their age was unknown but expected to be great,” he said, based on studies from more than 50 years ago. The extremely slow growth rates of these sharks — less than a centimeter per year — suggested they must live for many years.” So how do you discover the age of a mute primordial shark? Nielsen and his colleagues turned to radiocarbon dating. Read the rest here 13:53
Shark tale: 12-foot Arctic predator caught in warm Gulf of Mexico
Greenland sharks are cold-water swimmers, and usually live in the northern Atlantic, near the Arctic Circle. When they swim south, as they often do, they swim deeper, at depths below 3,000 feet where the water is a bracing 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s quite a contrast to the Gulf of Mexico’s waters, more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit the day the shark was caught. more@nbc
