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Greenland sharks grow at no more than about 1 centimeter per year in the limited mark–recapture records available, and they may live for centuries. Their sexual maturity is also inferred to occur only after many decades, perhaps more than a century. The leading explanation is a very slow metabolism associated with cold, deep water, but that remains a hypothesis rather than a demonstrated cause. The ages are model-based estimates, not readings from annual rings, and their uncertainty is substantial.
The short answer: an extreme slow-life strategy
The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) combines three unusual traits: very slow measured growth, an exceptionally long estimated lifespan and very late maturity. A 2016 study found that available mark–recapture observations implied growth of no more than about 1 cm per year. The same study used radiocarbon in eye lenses to estimate that the largest sampled female was 392 ± 120 years old, with a lower estimate of at least 272 years.
Those figures do not mean that every Greenland shark grows at exactly 1 cm annually or that a particular shark can be assigned an exact birthday. The growth estimate comes from only a few recaptured animals, while the ages come from a biological and environmental model. A 2025 assessment by Canada’s Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) notes that the radiocarbon method has not yet been independently validated and that deep-ocean carbon dynamics add uncertainty.
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What is actually known about growth, lifespan and maturity?
| Question | Best-supported estimate | How it was obtained | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| How fast do they grow? | No more than about 1 cm per year | Mark–recapture observations | Based on few individuals; not a species-wide rate for every age or habitat |
| How long can they live? | At least 272 years estimated; one 502 cm female estimated at 392 ± 120 years | Radiocarbon dating of eye-lens nuclei combined with modelling | Broad probability ranges and no alternative validation method yet available |
| When do they mature? | At least 156 ± 22 years inferred in the 2016 age model | Age model linked to estimated maturity size | An inferred age, not a direct age reading for each mature shark |
| At what size are half mature? | 284 ± 6 cm for males; 419 ± 4 cm for females | Reproductive-condition data and size-at-maturity modelling in 2020 | These are lengths, not ages |
These measurements describe different things. Growth rate is a change in length over time; lifespan is an age estimate; and the 2020 maturity values are lengths at which 50% of animals of each sex are estimated to be mature. Treating them as interchangeable would overstate what the studies show.
Why ordinary shark ageing methods do not work well
Many sharks can be aged by counting bands in vertebrae or other hard tissues. Greenland sharks are a poor fit for that approach: they lack the fin spines used in some ageing techniques, and their vertebrae are too poorly calcified to produce dependable annual bands.
Nielsen and colleagues therefore examined the eye lenses of 28 female Greenland sharks ranging from 81 to 502 cm in total length. The nucleus at the centre of each lens contains crystalline proteins formed during prenatal development. These proteins are metabolically inert in the usual sense, so the carbon signal incorporated when they formed remains preserved rather than being continually replaced.
Using the atmospheric “bomb pulse” as a time marker
Above-ground nuclear-weapons testing in the mid-20th century produced a recognizable increase in atmospheric radiocarbon. That signal, often called the bomb pulse, entered marine food webs and provides a calendar marker for younger animals. The researchers matched radiocarbon levels in lens nuclei with this time marker for the smaller, younger sharks.
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For older, pre-bomb individuals, there is no equivalent sharp marker. The study combined radiocarbon calibration with biological and environmental constraints to model the ages that best fit the measurements. This is an indirect inference: the lens does not contain a count of annual rings or a label stating the shark’s birth year.
What the headline ages mean—and what they do not
The 502 cm female
The largest animal in the 2016 sample, a 502 cm female, was assigned an estimated age of 392 ± 120 years. The ±120 figure represents the extent of a 95.4% probability range in the study’s model. In practical terms, the result supports an age measured in centuries, but it does not establish that this individual was exactly 392 years old.
The same analysis produced an estimated lifespan of at least 272 years. “At least” matters: the lower end of the modelled range is around that value, and the method does not set a proven maximum age for the species.
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The 2016 study inferred an age at sexual maturity of at least 156 ± 22 years by connecting the age model with the lengths at which sharks were considered mature. This is an age inference dependent on the same radiocarbon framework. It is not a direct observation that every Greenland shark matures at 156 years, nor does it replace the separate 2020 analysis of maturity by body length.
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Why males and females mature at different sizes
The 2020 reproductive-biology study estimated the length at which half of each sex is mature (the 50% maturity length, or TL50). The estimates differ markedly:
| Sex | Estimated TL50 | What the number represents |
|---|---|---|
| Male | 284 ± 6 cm total length | The modelled length at which 50% of males are mature |
| Female | 419 ± 4 cm total length | The modelled length at which 50% of females are mature |
A female therefore reaches the estimated 50% maturity length at roughly 1.5 times the male length. The values come from reproductive condition and statistical modelling of specimens, not from assigning an age to each shark. A large female is not automatically a particular number of years old, because individual growth histories and environmental conditions can differ.
How cold, deep water might slow growth
Greenland sharks inhabit cold northern and deep-ocean environments. NOAA proposes that a very slow metabolism adapted to those conditions could help explain their slow growth and long lives. In an ectothermic animal, body temperature and surrounding water influence physiological reaction rates. A lower metabolic pace could reduce the rate at which tissues develop and energy is used, producing a long timetable for reaching a large body size.
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That explanation fits the observed pattern, but it has not been proven as the single cause. The available evidence does not show that cold water alone imposes a specific growth rate on every individual. Nor does it demonstrate that the same metabolic mechanism directly determines the estimated ages. The 2025 COSEWIC assessment characterizes knowledge of growth and age as limited, so the mechanism should be presented as a well-motivated hypothesis.
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Slow growth and late maturity are biologically consistent
Growing slowly and reproducing late can form a coherent life-history strategy when an animal invests in surviving for a long time rather than reaching reproductive size quickly. Greenland sharks’ estimated centuries-long lifespan and very late maturity are consistent with that strategy. Consistency, however, is not proof of a particular evolutionary pathway: the studies describe the pattern more securely than they identify its complete physiological cause.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the estimates remain uncertain
Few direct growth observations
The approximately 1 cm-per-year figure is based on a small number of mark–recapture individuals. Marking a shark, releasing it and measuring it again provides direct evidence for those animals over that interval, but it does not sample all sizes, sexes, ages, seasons or regions. It should therefore be read as an upper estimate from limited observations, not as a universal annual schedule.
No independent age validation yet
COSEWIC’s 2025 assessment states that the radiocarbon age estimates lack a viable alternative method of validation. That does not invalidate the eye-lens approach; it means there is no separate, established ageing technique that can independently confirm the oldest modelled ages.
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Deep-ocean radiocarbon history is complicated
Radiocarbon in the deep ocean does not necessarily follow the atmosphere on the same timetable. Water masses can carry older carbon, and circulation patterns affect when a radiocarbon signal reaches organisms at depth. Uncertainty about those pre- and post-bomb dynamics changes the estimated birth dates of older sharks. This is why the probability ranges must accompany the headline ages.
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The sample was all female
The 28-shark eye-lens sample used for the 2016 age analysis consisted of females. The maturity-size study provides separate male and female estimates, but the centuries-long age model itself was not built from an equal sample of both sexes. Claims about sex differences in longevity therefore go beyond the evidence described here.
What is known about reproduction
COSEWIC describes Greenland sharks as lecithotrophically viviparous: embryos develop inside the mother and rely primarily on yolk rather than a placental food supply. Important details remain unresolved. The assessment says uterine fecundity or litter size, gestation duration and the length of the reproductive cycle are uncertain.
Those gaps matter because reproductive timing determines how quickly a population can replace adults. A species in which maturity arrives only after many decades cannot compensate rapidly for the loss of mature animals. That demographic implication follows from the late-maturity estimates, but it does not provide a precise recovery time or population-growth rate for Greenland sharks.
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Nielsen and coauthors wrote in their 2016 Science paper: “The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), an iconic species of the Arctic Seas, grows slowly and reaches >500 centimeters (cm) in total length, suggesting a life span well beyond those of other vertebrates.” The wording says “suggesting,” because the lifespan conclusion rests on inference rather than a direct age record.
A careful summary is therefore: Greenland sharks are among the longest-lived vertebrates known, with individual ages estimated in the centuries from eye-lens radiocarbon models. It is not careful to state that the largest shark was definitively 392 years old, that all Greenland sharks live for 400 years, or that cold water has been proven to cause the rate.
What would make the explanation stronger?
Confidence would improve if independent ageing techniques could validate the eye-lens model, if larger mark–recapture datasets measured growth across more sizes and locations, and if reproductive studies reduced uncertainty about gestation, litter size and cycle length. Better knowledge of deep-ocean radiocarbon circulation would also narrow the birth-date ranges used for older sharks.
Until those advances are available, the strongest conclusion is deliberately two-part: the slow-growth and late-maturity pattern is well supported by the available observations and models, while the exact ages and the physiological reason for that pattern remain uncertain.
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