esselte said:

Michael V said:

esselte said:

Greenland sharks have an extremely low metabolic rate. A shark that grows to sexual maturity in 50 years will have a higher metabolism than the 150 years shark. Higher metabolism means it needs more food so it can grow its body quicker. In an environment where food is scarce that fast growing shark is at a disadvantage compared to the slow growing shark; the fast growing shark may quickly exhaust its food supply and starve whilst the slower growing one isn’t even hungry. The time taken to reach maturity isn’t really a factor in the case of these sharks. They have no predators, can survive temporary reductions in food supply etc – a newborn Greenland shark has a very high chance of making it to 150 years old adulthood.

Well explained. Good onya.

:)

Thanks, but bare in mind I’m probably very wrong. Just saw the Rev’s question, thought it was interesting and so went looking. I’d never even heard of this shark before this morning.

I thought it a good explanation too (although still surprising :)).

I read about them this morning in my current early morning reading book. I’ll post details in the What I’m reading thread later.