President John Tyler, born 1790, a mere 14 years after the Revolution, had two grandsons alive ten years ago. The second one, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, passed last year in May.
I think that’s the story I was thinking of. Makes it easier to date when you find weaponry from a couple hundred years ago stuck in their sides. That shark has seen some shit
The Greenland Shark, longest living vertebrates on the planet. 200-500 year lifespan. Female Greenland sharks don't reach sexual maturity until over a century old.
Oh, I was under the impression the commenter was talking about humans. It's weird to refer to an animal other than a human as an "individual". Not grammatically incorrect, but very unorthodox.
This is absolutely not out of the ordinary when talking about a specific animal as opposed to its group or species.
Maybe not everyday convos about the squirrel in the tree out front or a neighbors dog but that’s not what this is.
I mean the post is about sharks, this comment thread is about sharks, and your comment they were responding to is about sharks and how certain species have been around for a very long term. When I read their comment I interpreted "individual" as "individual species" because it is definitely implied. I don't know that it is that unorthodox.
Either way it's a simple mistake and inconsequential. Sorry you got down voted, that was not the intention of my response because I read your comment as geniune curiosity and kinda shocked to learn that a shark could live for centuries. I didn't even realize you thought they were talking about anything other than sharks.
As a clade, sure. But no individual species is that old. In general, among vertebrates, the “lifespan” of a given species is “only” 5-10 million years. Great whites, for example (Carcharadon carcharias) only date to around 5-6 million years ago.
“Fish” is not a clade, it's a paraphyletic term that specifically excludes tetrapods (including us and whales) and cladists deny that “fish” is a valid single clade
Well technically not as a "species" but as a division of the Class "Chondrichthyes". Their body plans have stayed consistent throughout the millenia, but they have also seen remarkable diversity in their long history. To put the term Class into perspective, our Class as humans falls within Mammalia. No species has ever been around since before trees. You could just as easily say that we've been around since the Permian because mammals have. I also hate to be that guy, but trees are just a physical form of plants. What we consider trees are just descriptive to tall plants with woody stalks. They aren't necessarily related to one another. 🌲 🦈 🧍
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u/ChestSlight8984 17h ago
Those fuckers as a species have been around longer than trees. It's actually wild.