Greenland Shark may can Live Over 400 years?

Discussion in 'Group Discussions' started by OckyDub, Aug 11, 2016.

  1. OckyDub

    OckyDub is a Verified MemberOckyDub I gave the Loc'ness monstah about $3.50
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    If you’re counting on technology to radically extend your lifespan, you’ll want to pay close attention to what’s happening with the Greenland shark. According to a new scientific paper, this mysterious deep-sea dweller can live up to 400 years, making it the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth.

    Let that number sink in for a minute. Four hundred years ago, a ship called the Mayflower was about to set sail for the New World. The oldest Greenland sharks alive today might have been babies when the first Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic. Or, they could have been young adults. A dating analysis of 28 female Greenland sharks, published today in Science, determined that the oldest individual lived to be somewhere between 272 and 512 years of age. Most likely, she was a ripe 390 when a research vessel accidentally hauled her up.

    Even on the lower end of that scale, the Greenland shark’s impressive lifespan still blows any vertebrate contenders out of the water. The next longest-lived vertebrate, the bowhead whale, has barely crossed the two century mark.


    Greenland sharks are among the most poorly studied sharks on the Earth. Found in cold, deep waters throughout the North Atlantic, these slow-growing scavenger/predators have been hauled up as bycatch for centuries and were briefly harvested for their liver oil in the early 1900s. But despite our longstanding relationship with Greenland sharks, humans know next to nothing about their population size, distribution, and ecology. Norway’s conservation Red List describes the species with two simple words: “Data Deficient.”

    “I think in general, people have overlooked the Greenland shark as this deep sea animal of no ecological or economic importance,” lead study author Julius Nielsen told Gizmodo. “There’s never been a scientific interest.”


    Jay Olshansky, an expert on longevity and aging at the University of Chicago who was not involved with the study. “The story told to us by the Greenland shark adds another notch in the longevity scale, and while we’re still missing some of the details for this species, it’s not too difficult to fill in the blank spaces.”

    Those “blank spaces” include age to puberty, reproductive window length, and the survival rate of offspring. Since these life history attributes tend to scale predictably with lifespan, Olshansky suspects the Greenland shark has a very wide reproductive window and encounters little predation. Nielsen’s analysis, which determined that the animals do not reach sexual maturity until they’re about 150, seems to support that hypothesis.

    All of this has major implications for Greenland shark conservation. As you might imagine, a species that doesn’t reproduce until it’s midway through its second century of life could be hard-hit by commercial fishing. “I don’t consider them threatened, but I do consider them vulnerable,” Neilsen said. “This definitely advocates for a precautionary approach in terms of exploitation, and for minimizing by catch.”

    Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, agrees. “While scientists may continue to debate absolute longevity, it is clear that the Greenland shark is exceptionally slow growing, late to mature, and long-lived, even by shark standards,” she told Gizmodo. “As is the case for most sharks, these life history characteristics make Greenland sharks particularly susceptible to overexploitation and slow to recover once depleted.”

    No doubt, these incredible animals deserve our protection in their own right. But there’s also a selfish reason for ensuring the survival of Greenland sharks: unlocking the secrets of extreme longevity.

    “This article highlights just how little science still knows about the life histories of these and other magnificent creatures,” said Kevin Perrott, a scientist at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and co-founder of SENS Research Foundation. “It also underlines how easy it would be to remain forever ignorant and lose this resource because of climate change and environmental damage.”

    By carelessly wiping out biodiversity, Perrott added, “we run the risk of forever losing the opportunity to study organisms with insight into humanity’s most pressing medical challenge, the aging process.”

    Olshansky agrees. “Having another vertebrate living so long tells us that natural selection has successfully produced a species capable of avoiding or delaying diseases such as cancer or neurological disorders, for far longer time periods than humans are now capable of living.”

    Gerontologist and anti-aging expert Aubrey de Gray cautioned that factors contributing to the Greenland shark’s longevity may not easily translate to humans owing to the different environmental pressures the sharks have evolved under.

    “We must remember that cold-blooded species, especially when living in very cold environments, have less of a problem with oxidative stress than mammals do, because the main source of free radicals in our bodies is the oxygen metabolism that we need to perform in order to keep warm,” he told Gizmodo. “Therefore, these sharks may not have any new tricks applicable to us, even though they outlive us by such a wide margin.”

    “But, they may!” he added. “So we should definitely study them more.”

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  2. Tyroc

    Tyroc Deactivated Account

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    So that's the species I'be obviously been cross bred with
     
  3. ColumbusGuy

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    Damn and I thought those tortoises lived long lives. I also like the thing about bio-diversity. That is not only important among species, it is important within species and is one key to the survival of a species-diversity. Which is why I hate talk about what is basicaly eugenics and the 'this is more important than that' among humans. You never know what little thing may save us.

    Look at the 1% or so of the population that has that genetic defect where the defect keeps the certain protein from getting to the cell lining of the T-cell and letting HIV in. What if HIV was untreatable and killed quickly, but spread like the common cold? That 'defect' or 'mutation' could be damn important in saving the species. Just an example.

    Why is the most 'pressing medical challenge' the aging process? It is a perfectly normal process. Yeah lets try and deal with cancer and neuro/cognitive decline but this anti-aging stuff goes to far. Life is finite. Get used to it. (except for Tyroc and whatever he has been cross bred with of course...looking like a younger version of Shemar Moore smh.)

    Anyway whales are incredible.
     
  4. Tyroc

    Tyroc Deactivated Account

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    For completely selfish reasons I'll give you that cancer should have an important priority along with neuro/cognitive decline but anti aging can never go too far in my opinion.
    Vampirism, Stem cells, Lady Bathory blood bathing, hanging out at certain clinics trying to cop some fresh placental fluid, you name it, if it'll preserve youth I'm all in.
    Besides the world would be a poorer place if I were allowed to age like a normal human
     
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  5. alton

    Squad Leader The Great Debater The 1000 Daps Club

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    Im sorry, but I hope they dont find anything beneficial from this animal, because then all their gonna do is exploit it and eventually kill it off like they do everything else.
     
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