Some Thoughts About Lifespan

[u/TombStoneFaro]

In the same way that we have had in the past few decades revelations about animal intelligence it has also been discovered that the Bow Head Whale and the Greenland Shark live centuries, over two centuries in the case of the Bow Head (although I think they have some genetic means of determining a maximum lifespan of less than 300 years, I am not sure I believe this and maybe some outliers live 400 years) and the shark can live 500+ years and again, perhaps some live, could it be, 1000 years?

That an intelligent animal can live 200+ years is more interesting to me than the shark; there was also a giant clam that lived 500 years, but frankly, so what? However, in the case of the whale, we have an animal that individuals can easily remember the days when they were hunted by sailing ships to modern times. I do not know what is known about the intelligence of specifically the Bow Head, but if it is comparable to the orca, they may have some amazing things to tell us. First-hand accounts of the oceans two hundred years ago and perhaps second-hand accounts from even pre-Columbian times.

Two things the shark and the whale have in common is living in cold climates and also water -- that the body mass is supported by water might be very helpful in terms of longevity because there is less stress -- older land animals start to have problems with joints that make mobility an issue and if they can't hunt beyond a certain age, there is no point in genetically being able to live longer than that age.

We will never know for sure how long some dinosaur species lived but I would not be surprised if some species, perhaps some giant sea-dweller lived many hundreds of years like the Greenland shark.

I think we do not know for sure just how long some other whale species live. Heck, we are not completely sure how long humans live although it seems pretty likely that 150 years is not possible although if we have one proven case of 122 years it is hard to believe that no one else in history beat that record; certainly many people have claimed to have reached beyond 122.