There are sharks which can live for up to 500 years.

There are sharks which can live for up to 500 years.

A Greenland shark has lived at least 272 years, making the species the longest-lived vertebrate in the world – smashing the previous record held by a 211-year-old bowhead whale. But it may have been as old as 500 years.

Greenland shark

It's no fish tale: The Greenland shark is the longest-lived vertebrate on the planet, a new study says. The animal, native to the cold, deep waters of the North Atlantic, can live to at least 272 years—and possibly to the ripe old age of 500.

Such is the life of the Greenland shark—a 5-meter-long predator that may live more than 400 years, according to a new study, making it the longest lived vertebrate by at least a century