{"id":92647,"date":"2025-11-09T15:17:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T15:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sharks-secrets-to-living-for-400-years-revealed"},"modified":"2025-11-09T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T15:31:17","slug":"sharks-secrets-to-living-for-400-years-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/sharks-secrets-to-living-for-400-years-revealed","title":{"rendered":"Shark’s Secrets to Living for 400 Years Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The shark is large, sluggish, and can be found in the deep waters of the North Atlantic. They don\u2019t reach sexual maturity until they are 150 years old, therefore their population is believed to still be recovering from over-fishing prior to World War II.<\/p>\n

The Greenland shark is an animal with the stunning ability to live for as long as 400 years. Now, an international group of scientists from Europe and the US are mapping the genome of the shark, which will help researchers better understand how the animal is able to live for so long, a report from the New York Times detailed.<\/p>\n

According to the research, which was published as a preprint in bioRxiv, the sharks possess exceptionally large genomes with about 6.5 billion DNA \u201cbase pairs\u201d. That is twice as many as is found in humans, making it one of the largest non-tetrapod genomes sequenced so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny research into the mechanisms of how this animal is able to live for such a long time will at some point need the genome sequence,\u201d said Steve Hoffmann, a computational biologist in Germany who led the research.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the scientists also discovered the genome to be composed of repeated genes which are known as \u201cjumping genes\u201d. These genres are able to self replicate after inserting themselves in others, like a \u201cgenomic parasite\u201d Hoffmann explained. This can disrupt the normal functioning of genes and cause diseases or developmental issues in an organism, the report explained.<\/p>\n

But the researchers have hypothesized that evolution has catered to the Greenland shark, allowing it to take control of these \u201cgenomic parasites\u201d and use them in DNA repair.<\/p>\n

Joa\u0303o Pedro de Magalha\u0303es, a molecular biogerontologist who was not involved in the study, said research on the shark\u2019s extraordinary genome may help scientists \u201cdevelop cancer therapies or prevention measures, or a greater fundamental understanding of cancer that will lead to clinical benefits\u201d for people.<\/p>\n

A separate team of researchers were stunned in 2016 when they discovered that one female Greenland shark had likely been alive for 400 years, after they set out to determine the ages of 28 of these fascinating vertebrates. The sharks are large and can grow up to 5 meters (16.5 feet) in length and reach sexual maturity at age 150.<\/p>\n

The determination of the shark\u2019s age was not exact, but researchers guess she could have been between 272 and 512 years old, making her likely 400 years old \u2013 which means her date of birth would belong some time to the 17th century.<\/p>\n

The discovery of the shark\u2019s age made it the new record-holder for the world\u2019s oldest vertebrate. However, the record for the oldest living invertebrate belongs to a 507-year-old clam named Ming, and the oldest living land animal was a Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan who was over 190 years old.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The shark is large, sluggish, and can be found in the deep waters of the North Atlantic. They don\u2019t reach sexual maturity until they are 150 years old, therefore their population is believed to still be recovering from over-fishing prior to World War II. The Greenland shark is an animal with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-92647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nShark's Secrets to Living for 400 Years Revealed - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The shark is large, sluggish, and can be found in the deep waters of the North Atlantic. 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