Consider the Greenland Shark (2020)

5 days ago

Shakespeare referenced the plague in 1606 as a Greenland shark that's still alive today swam, highlighting human transience versus animal longevity.
In 2008, carbon-14 dating of Greenland shark eye proteins revealed they can live for centuries, with one female estimated between 272 and 512 years old.
Greenland sharks are not visually appealing, having blunt faces, stunted fins, and parasitic worms on their eyes that cause near-blindness.
They have a strong odor due to high urea concentrations, making them smell like urine and their fresh meat toxic, requiring fermentation to be edible as hákarl.
These sharks are extremely slow, moving at 1.7 to 2.2 mph, with a low metabolism needing only the calories of about 1.5 chocolate digestives daily.
They are scavengers and hunters, eating items like reindeer and polar bears that fall off ice, and a human leg was once found in a shark's stomach.
After death, their muscles continue contracting for days, as noted by historical accounts, making them difficult to kill and handle safely.
They prefer deep, cold ocean depths up to 2200 meters, and key aspects like mating and birth have never been observed by humans.
Conservation status is uncertain due to their secretive lives; they were over-fished for oil, and slow reproduction (taking 150 years to breed) makes them vulnerable.
Greenland sharks are found in cold, deep waters globally, potentially near many regions, and symbolize hope through their endurance across human crises and transformations.

Hasty Briefsbeta