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Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
The Greenland sleeping shark can grow up to 400 years old, but that's not its limit, 400 years is just the limit of what can be measured by current human technology.
Hundreds of years of lonely life in the depths of the ocean have also made this prehistoric giant shark very "Buddhist", since life and death are not a problem, what can bother them?
Not to mention that there really is, you can only fall in love when you are an adult, humans need to be 18 years old, some other animals are two or three years old, and some are teenagers, but the Greenland sleeping shark cannot, and its first 156 years were single life.
Not to mention adulthood, even there are very few creatures that can live to 156 years old, so why do Greenland sleeping sharks live so long, and how do they survive these long 400 years?
«【Innocent sleeping shark who has been single for 156 years·】»
The Greenland sleeping shark is not handsome in appearance, and it is even a little ugly, and the fierce megalodon can be called a clear eyebrow in front of it.
Their bodies are gray or brownish, with many furrows and ravines, spots, rough skin, 7 meters long, weighing 2,000 pounds, and no majestic tall dorsal fin.
The females are slightly larger than the males and look like weather-beaten "fossils" on the ocean floor.
But it turns out that they are, and the Greenland sleeping shark is the most "innocent" shark, and they cannot reproduce until they are 156 years old, when they can reach a length of about 4 meters.
The process of waiting to grow up is slow, and it takes them a century and a half to reach adulthood, after which they can't wait to find a mate and then reproduce.
Greenland sleeping sharks are ovoviviparous, they rely on the nutrients in the eggs to grow and develop, and only after maturity do they come to the womb of the female shark and are born again.
This growth pattern is the result of long-term evolution to adapt to a more complex and harsh environment.
Unlike other fish that migrate to warmer waters, Greenland sleeping sharks prefer to run in cold places and migrate to the coldest places throughout the year.
In such an environment, there will be many fewer natural predators in the sea, and competitors will not come to disturb its "slow" life.
The Greenland sleeping shark has been observed to dive to a maximum depth of 2,200 meters, and it is the only shark found in cold waters.
The environmental conditions in the deep sea are also harsher, and the cubs grow up in the mother's body and then survive much more easily in the ocean.
But that's it, the population of the Greenland sleeping shark is not optimistic, and they tend not to reproduce again in the first few years of caring for their cubs in order to increase the survival rate of their cubs, which is quite long-lasting.
Often, other animals have been breeding for five, six, seven or eight generations, and the Greenland sleeping shark has just reached the age of being able to fall in love.
The hunting of Greenlandic sleeping sharks for cod liver oil had a major impact on the continuation of the population, and it was not until 1960 that the commercial fishing was halted.
But their growth cycle is so slow that scientists have said they need at least a century to recuperate.
But other fishing activities by fishermen also catch juvenile Greenland sleeping sharks by mistake, making the Geliang Nansha now less and less abundant, and now it is classified as vulnerable.
«【One of the longest-lived vertebrates】»
In fact, the age estimates of the Greenland sleeping shark are inaccurate, and the usual means used to detect the age of the animals do not work on them.
The most commonly used way to estimate the lifespan of an animal is the age of the bones, but the Greenland sleeping shark lacks this kind of hard bones, and they are all cartilage, so the lifespan of 400 years is still a conservative estimate.
What is the concept of 400 years old? That is, it has been around since the 17th century, and it was born during the Ming Dynasty in China.
Because of their extremely long lifeline, their bodies also grow slowly, and in order to pass the long years, their movements will also become very slow.
They usually swim very slowly, how slow can they be?
They only swim 1,000 meters per hour, and now middle school students can run 1,000 meters in less than five minutes.
It is precisely because of this slow development that they live so long.
And the Greenland sleeping shark grows in the deep waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean, and even in the Arctic Circle.
The cold environment will inhibit their development, and all the functions of the body will be slowed down, just like the heart of a bear is almost in a state of stopping when it is hibernating.
Greenland sleeping sharks also have a slow heartbeat, every 5 minutes, so the cold environment also slows their growth, and they can only grow almost 1 centimeter per year.
It is also because of their inaccessible habitat that it is a mysterious marine benthic creature for people, and some have even linked it to the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster.
«Crocodile in the Ocean·]»
Greenland sleeping sharks are slow to do anything, but they are still predators of the ocean, known as the "crocodile of the ocean".
They are omnivores, eat everything, and like to get close to their prey slowly when hunting, sneaking up from behind, they may not be able to swim fast, but it is precisely because they are "slow" that it is often difficult for prey to detect its approach.
Polar bears are claimed to be the number one predator in the Arctic Circle and are at the top of the food chain, but researchers have found polar bear bones in the stomachs of sleeping sharks in Greenland.
And this is a young polar bear in the prime of life, and biologists have put forward many speculations that it is likely that the melting of the Arctic ice caused the polar bear to spend more time in the water before it was caught by the Greenland sleeping shark.
In addition, seals, reindeer, animal carrion, fish and shrimp, crabs, etc. are all food sources, and it is really not a picky eater at all.
Although the Greenland sleeping shark is a great predator, it can also be plagued by small bugs.
Their eyes are parasitic with a copepod, a yellowish-white creature that gathers to emit a faint glow in dark, deep-water areas.
Although this animal eats away at the cornea of the Greenland sleeping shark, causing partial blindness in the eye and difficulty in seeing, it is not entirely without benefits.
The light they emit attracts some of the phototaxis creatures on the ocean floor to swim towards the Greenland sleeping shark, which can get a big meal without much effort.
For example, octopuses, which are very fast on the ocean floor, can also be devoured by Greenland sleeping sharks.
But not all Greenland sleeping sharks are parasitized by copepods, after all, at the cost of losing their eyes.
Unlike humans or other animals, their eyes will gradually age with age, and the tissue structure will be deformed, and the lens tissue in their eyes will not change in any way.
This may have something to do with their seldom use of their eyes, and Greenland's sleeping sharks rely on their sense of smell and touch.
The body of the Greenland sleeping shark is toxin, but it does not concentrate the toxin in a single organ of the body, but throughout the muscles of the body.
Even animals capable of hunting Greenlandic sleeping sharks can be poisoned to death when they devour them, and the only ones who are not afraid of this poison are their own kind.
Guess right, there will be cannibalism between them, and sure enough, the only one who can defeat the Greenland sleeping shark is the Greenland sleeping shark itself.
Reference:
The Paper, "400-year-old shark becomes popular, longevity because of its "life lies in laziness"?丨Science • Living Magazine", 2020-12-14
"Unveiling the Mystery of the Loch Ness Monster or Greenland Shark Monster", 2016-3-3
China News Network, "Polar Bears Fall Prey to Sharks: Polar Bear's Jaws in Shark Stomachs (Picture)", 2008-8-13