{"id":324689,"date":"2026-03-11T19:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/324689\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T19:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:50:08","slug":"the-392-year-old-shark-story-is-everywhere-online-but-researchers-say-its-age-isnt-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/324689\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201c392-Year-Old Shark\u201d Story Is Everywhere Online, But Researchers Say Its Age Isn\u2019t What You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

A viral image circulating on social media claims to show a 392-year-old Greenland shark discovered in the Arctic Ocean. The striking figure has fueled fascination with one of the planet\u2019s most mysterious deep-sea creatures. But researchers say the specific apex predator in the widely shared photo has no confirmed age.<\/p>\n

The confusion stems from legitimate scientific research showing that they can live for centuries, making them the longest-lived known vertebrates. Yet the viral claim attributes a precise age to a specific animal without evidence.<\/p>\n

As stated in various reports, the photograph actually comes from research conducted during a 2016 study on its longevity, but scientists involved in that work say the age of the ocean shown cannot be determined.<\/p>\n

A Study Turned Viral Claim<\/p>\n

The image circulating online appeared alongside text claiming it shows a 392-year-old shark that has been swimming the oceans since 1627. The post spread widely across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit, gathering thousands of shares and reactions.<\/p>\n

The claim originates from a misunderstanding of a scientific estimate from the 2016 study, published in Science<\/a> and led by Julius Nielsen<\/a>, then a doctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers examined 28 female Greenland sharks, most of which had died after becoming trapped in fishing nets. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, the team estimated that the oldest ocean preadator in their sample was between 272 and 512 years old. <\/p>\n

\"GreenlandGreenland shark released from research ship. Credit: Julius Nielsen<\/p>\n

The Shark In The Viral Image Has No Confirmed Age<\/p>\n

As reported by USA Today<\/a>, the image was captured as a screenshot from a video recorded during the 2016 research effort.Nielsen later clarified that the preadator shown in the viral image cannot be assigned a precise age. In an Instagram post referenced in the report, he wrote that although the cartilaginous fish appeared large, we can\u2019t say anything that precise about its age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shark was big yes, but we cant say anything that precise about its age.\u201d he added, \u201cMy guess is that this particular shark was older than 150 years but it is obviously a guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA Greenland shark photographed during a scientific study in the Arctic. Credit: Julius Nielsen<\/p>\n

Why Greenland Sharks Can Live For Centuries?<\/p>\n

Greenland sharks<\/a> inhabit cold, deep waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, where their slow growth and metabolism are believed to contribute to remarkable longevity.<\/p>\n

According to a recent entry from Britannica<\/a>, the species can grow up to 23 feet (about 7 meters) in length, though many individuals measure between 6.5 and 13 feet. Their extremely slow growth rate, estimated at only a small fraction of an inch per year, makes determining their age particularly difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A viral image circulating on social media claims to show a 392-year-old Greenland shark discovered in the Arctic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-324689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}