AnimalsMarine Life
A Greenland shark isn't ready to breed until about 150.
A Greenland shark grows about a centimetre a year and may not reach breeding age until around 150. They cruise the Arctic slower than a person walks, and a large one alive today could plausibly have been swimming while Napoleon was marching.
Step by step
- Greenland sharks cruise the Arctic slower than a person strolls.
- They grow about a centimetre a year; females may not breed until around age 150.
- A big one alive today could have been swimming while Napoleon was marching.
Source
This fact is written from the English Wikipedia article it links to, so you can check every word in one tap. Fact Drop rates that source 4 out of 5 for credibility, and the rating travels with the fact on the back of its card in the app.
Keep digging
Yet the Greenland shark isn't close to the oldest animal we've met…
This fact is a step in the rabbit hole Older than trees. Follow the rabbit hole
More animal facts
Animal facts are the ones people repeat at dinner. Sharks are older than trees, a headless chicken lived for eighteen months, and vampire bats remember who fed them. Every fact here links to the reference it came from.
- Sharks are older than trees.
- The oldest animal ever found was 507. We froze it.
- A mantis shrimp's strike is fast enough to boil the water behind it into a vapour bubble.
- One jellyfish can age backwards. Indefinitely.
- Horseshoe crab blood clots on contact with bacterial toxins, so it has been used for decades to check that vaccines and implants are sterile.
- A headless chicken lived for 18 months.