Longevity

The impossible claim This wrinkled rodent lives 30+ years — nine times longer than a mouse — and its risk of dying doesn’t rise with age at all. The verified facts The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a nearly hairless, cold-blooded burrowing rodent from East Africa — and the longest-lived rodent known. Where a similar-sized mouse survives about 4 years, naked mole rats routinely live over 28 years (some past 30), and the oldest recorded reached 41 years. ...

The impossible claim This animal was 507 years old — born before the printing press reached most of the world. Scientists killed it the moment they learned its age. The verified facts ‘Ming’ was an ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) dredged up off Iceland in 2006 — and the oldest non-colonial animal ever precisely dated: 507 years, born around 1499. Its age lived inside the shell as annual growth bands, counted and cross-dated against other shells exactly like tree rings (sclerochronology). Scientists only worked out how old it was after opening it — which killed it. ...

The impossible claim This shark was alive before the United States existed — and some swimming today may have been born in the 1700s. The verified facts The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is the longest-living vertebrate known to science. In 2016, researchers radiocarbon-dated the eye lenses of 28 female sharks and estimated the largest at 392 ± 120 years old — born sometime between 1500 and 1750. They grow absurdly slowly: about 1 cm per year, reaching ~5 m as adults, and may not be sexually mature until ~150 years old They swim blind: Ommatokoita elongata, a parasitic copepod, permanently anchors on the eye, clouding the cornea (the shark likely doesn’t mind — it hunts mostly by smell) They live in the cold deep Atlantic and Arctic, down to ~2,200 m, moving at a leisurely ~0.3 m/s — earning the nickname ‘sleeper sharks’ One shark examined had eaten an entire reindeer (likely scavenged); their stomachs also turn out moose remains Watch 🎬 See the Short on YouTube — The Shark Older Than the United States ...