
This 512-Year-Old Greenland Shark Is the Oldest Living Vertebrate on the Planet - wyclif
https://www.thescinewsreporter.com/2018/10/this-512-year-old-greenland-shark-is_20.html
======
mujoco
Link to the Science Magazine article cited:
[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/greenland-shark-
may-...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/greenland-shark-may-
live-400-years-smashing-longevity-record)

Apparently the researchers collected dead Greenland sharks accidentally caught
in fishing nets, and examined their eye lenses for traces of C-14 from 1950's
nuclear tests. Any shark with none must have been born after 1963. This
allowed them to estimate how fast the sharks grow in their first ~= 50 years
of life. They also applied other radioisotope dating methods (not fully
explained), in addition to an extrapolated "growth curve", to estimate the
biggest shark caught had been 390+-120 years old.

~~~
yongjik
Wow, that's some impressive game of telephones.

"We estimated the age of this dead shark as 392+/-120 years."

===> "This _512-year-old_ shark is the oldest _living_ vertebrate!"

...facepalm

