Scientists managed to establish the age of the oldest animal
17:44, 29 September
Scientists managed to establish the age of the oldest animal on the planet. Study lenses the Greenland sharks showed that the age of many specimens up to 400 years. Now scientists believe that longevity is the normal condition for vertebrates, and early death — an unfortunate exception to the rule. This is reported by “Elements”.
Polar Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) are widely distributed in the North Atlantic. This is the largest fish that live permanently in Arctic waters. Adults usually reach 4-5 meters in length. It is known that Greenland sharks grow relatively slowly — centimeters per year. This suggests that large sharks travel through the ocean for 400-500 years.
Photo: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program
But how to check? “Elements” describe in detail the scientific work of Danish and Norwegian marine biologists, who investigated the crystalline lens in the eyes of the sharks. The fact that the center of the lens life are preserved protein molecules accumulated even before the birth of the individual. The age of these proteins was determined by classical radiocarbon method, as is the case with archaeological finds.
The researchers studied samples from 28 sharks of different sizes. As it turned out, the age of sharks of length 493 cm amounted to 335 ± 75 years, and individuals with a length of 502 cm — as much as 392 ± 120 years. Thus, the old shark could easily swim across the North Atlantic in first half of XVII century. Therefore, the Greenland shark can be considered the most long-lived of the modern vertebrates.
Reminiscent of “Elements,” evolution does not immediately come to the idea of death of the body from old age. The first inhabitants of planet Earth, bacteria and archaea were potentially immortal. Single-celled creatures can certainly die from a variety of external reasons, but a programmed death is necessarily final every life cycle, they do not. She appears only in multicellular organisms. But the individual coral polyps can live for more than four thousand years. And the famous naked mole rats practically don’t age and can live more than 30 years, which is a record for rodents.
Now the list of famous scientist of centenarians and joined the Greenland shark and the reasons for this have yet to understand.
