Is it true that the photo shows a shark about 400 years old?

On social networks, a photograph is common in which a shark is allegedly captured, which has been living in the ocean for several centuries. We checked the reliability of this picture.

Photos of "The oldest in the world" Sharks born in 1627 And inhabiting either in the Atlantic, or in the northern Arctic Ocean, from time to time appear on VKontakte over the past few years. The image did not pass other social networks - for example, Twitter, Facebook And Pikabu. In some publications you can find and Another assessment of the age of the animal - more than 500 years.

For the first time, the news about the "oldest in the world" Shark appeared at the end of 2017. In Russia, the country's largest television channels told about it - NTV And "Russia 24". The shark, born in 1505, was allegedly caught in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The length of the animal related to the species of the Greenland sharks was 5.4 m, and its age was established using a radiocarbon analysis of the lens of the eye. As the NTV channel specified, the opening became known from publications British tabloid The Sun.

History again became popular two years later, when The Sun, probably Published Your text is again. In Russian, the news was retold, for example, Lenta.ru And "News". This time, scientists allegedly determined the age of the sharks by its size - they proceeded from the prerequisite that the animal grows by 1 cm per year, respectively, with a length of 5.4 m, its age exceeds half a thousand years.

The author of the original British publication spoke of a unique shark with reference to an unnamed study in the authoritative scientific journal Science. Its authors, according to The Sun, analyzed 28 representatives of the species and calculated that the most likely age of the oldest of them was between 272 and 512 years. The average arithmetic between these numbers is 392, hence the second popular estimate of the age of the shark. In the design of the material, photographs were used, then widely dispersed through social networks. Judging by the signatures to them, the images are taken from the Instagram account @juniel85. For example, the photograph who interests us is cut out of this video:

This account belongs Biologist Julius Nilsen from the University of Copenhagen. In 2016, he along with several co -authors Published In the journal Science, an article on how, by radiocarbon analysis of the lens, it was possible to determine the high life expectancy of the Greenland shark. Apparently, it was this study that was discussed in The Sun. Note that Nielsen repeatedly complained on his Instagram about unprofessional journalists who distort his conclusions. “Please remember that we did not find sharks who are 600 or 500 years old ... We just rated approximately (that is, this is not confirmed) that the age of one of the sharks is at least 272 years, or, more precisely, between 272 and 512 years with a probability of 95.5%,” - He wrote Biologist at the end of 2017.

Thus, although the Greenland sharks are real long -livers, not the oldest individuals are depicted in the popular media in the media and social networks. For example, a shark on the cover of this publication, according to researchers, is about 150 years old. Moreover, biologists only put forward an assumption of the age of the oldest of the studied individuals, offering the lower and upper boundary of the possible age. And some journalists and bloggers, in turn, began to give out the maximum possible calculated number for a verified result. And even the second popular assessment of the age in 392 only seems more neat - in fact, it is far from the truth.

Most of the untruth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. J. Nielsen et al. Eye Lens Radiocarbon Reveals Centuries of Longevity in the Greenland Sharm (Somniosus Microcephalus
2. USA Today. Fact Check: Claim That a Viral Image Shows a 392-Year-Lod Shaark is Unverified