New Research Discovers Oldest Living Vertebrate
When it comes to living to a ripe old age, humans are up there. Around the world, humans can expect to live at least 40 years, and in some developed countries they can expect to live well into their eighties.
That's pretty good in comparison to the rest of the animal world, though some species of tortoise can live well past 100. African elephants have an average lifespan of about 70 years. But fish and various other sea creatures beat all of us terrestrial animals, fins down.
Wanna get old? Live in the ocean
Among vertabrates, animals with a backbone, the Bowhead whale's average lifespan is 200 years. At least one koi fish lived to an estimated 226 years. And the Greenland Shark has always been high on the list also with an average lifespan of 200 years.
But new research published in Science magazine has pushed the Greenland Shark into the record books as the oldest living vertebrate in the world. The record-breaking research was done by a Julius Nielsen from Denmark along with a huge group of collaborators from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a number of universities.