This animal is physically disabled but extremely ferocious, with a lifespan of up to 4 centuries. It is the Greenland shark

“I mourn the brevity of my life and envy the infinity of the Yangtze River.” Life is fleeting, and a life span of only a few decades cannot be compared with the endless Yangtze River.

In fact, let alone the Yangtze River, there are some long-lived animals in nature whose lifespans are beyond the reach of humans, such as the Greenland shark. This shark, which lives in the North Atlantic Ocean, can live for more than 400 years, which means that from their birth to their final death, it will span four centuries. However, this is only a theoretical lifespan, and in fact it may be even longer. In 2006, scientists observed a 500-year-old shark in the deep sea at a depth of 2,200 meters.

The Greenland shark, the name sounds soft and fluffy, so it must be a loyal elder in the shark family? In fact, it is not.

The Greenland shark is a large shark that can reach up to 7 meters in length and weigh more than one ton, which is not inferior to the great white shark. Not only is the Greenland shark as big as the great white shark, but it is also as ferocious as the great white shark. In the ocean, the Greenland shark has a wide variety of food, ranging from small crustaceans and mollusks to large squids and various fish. It not only preys on animals that live in the sea, but also on animals that live on land and fly in the sky.

Greenland sharks not only often prey on seabirds that land on the water, but also wait for opportunities to hunt land mammals.

When humans hunt Greenland sharks, they have found carcasses of reindeer and horses in their bodies. Even more incredible is that humans have occasionally found remains of polar bears in their bodies. The fact that they even eat polar bears shows how ferocious this shark is. Such a ferocious guy is naturally a good hunter, but this good hunter has a physical disability. All Greenland sharks are blind.

Why do Greenland sharks go blind? You might think that their lifestyle causes their eyes to gradually degenerate, but that's not the case.

The Greenland shark is blind not because of congenital blindness, but because of acquired blindness. In addition to hunting, the Greenland shark spends all its time sleeping. When it is sleeping, a long yellow-white parasite will quietly attach to its body, and then the parasite will slowly move to the shark's eyes, one end of which will hang in the eye, while the other end will start to gnaw the shark's cornea, and the Greenland shark will become blind. Fortunately, blindness does not affect the Greenland shark's hunting activities, but it makes this animal more lonely.

One of the important reasons why Greenland sharks live long is that they grow slowly.

This animal can only grow about one centimeter per year, and it will reach adulthood when it is about 4 meters long. If converted into age, its adult age is about 156 years old, which means that this marine creature has to endure a lonely life in the dark for 156 years after birth before it can start looking for a mate. If it were a human, such loneliness would be unbearable. Although the Greenland shark has the natural ability to live long, its living conditions are gradually deteriorating, and the culprit is humans.

Greenland sharks move slowly and spend most of their time sleeping, making them one of the easiest sharks to catch.

Humans catch Greenland sharks mainly for their delicious livers. Of course, their meat is also edible, but it needs to be processed in advance because there is a neurotoxin called trimethylamine oxide in the body of Greenland sharks, which can be fatal to humans. However, these toxins only exist in the meat and not in the liver. To eat the meat of this shark, the meat needs to be cut into small strips and hung outdoors to dry. After thorough drying, the toxins will disappear, but the meat of the shark that has not been completely dried may be more toxic.

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