Granny, What Big Teeth You Have! At 400, Greenland Shark May Be Oldest Predator In The Sea

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A huge, predator shark has been lurking in the icy waters of the Arctic Seas for hundreds of years.

Researchers say a female Greenland shark in the North Atlantic, is the longest living vertebrate on record. She is 392-years-old!

"We had our expectations that we were dealing with an unusual animal, but I think everyone doing this research was very surprised to learn the sharks were as old as they were," says lead author and marine biologist Julius Nielsen.

Greenland sharks are big, slow-moving, carnivorous predators and can grow as long as 18 feet. They are almost blind because of the parasites hanging from their eyes. Impaired sight is not a problem since they hunt in complete darkness, and have a highly evolved sense of smell.

Scientists can actually determine the age of a Greenland shark by looking into its eyes. Protein builds up on the lens. They use radiocarbon dating to count the layers, like rings on a tree.

"They could see carbon initially going to the 1960s when nuclear bombs were being tested off Greenland and we could see the radiation in the eyes there," said David Agus of the University of Southern California. "We can go deeper and estimate that it's 300 to 400 years when these sharks were actually born. "

Female Greenland sharks reach sexual maturity at 134 years of age.

Actually, the Greenland shark is not the oldest creature in the sea on record. An Icelandic clam lived to be 507, and the deep-sea sponge, Monorhaphis chuni, is estimated to be about 11,000 years old.