The Greenland Shark, the Longest-Living Vertebrate on Earth (2017)
18 comments
·January 18, 2025lysace
perihelions
Yes, but
- "The meat of the Greenland shark is poisonous when fresh because of its high urea and trimethylamine oxide content. However, when properly processed, it may be consumed safely.[3][4] "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hákarl
The reaction quotes are intriguing,
"That's hardcore. That's serious food. You don't want to mess with that. That's not for beginners." · "awful", "like a jellied cube of ammonia" albeit "technically edible" · "reminiscent of "blue cheese but a hundred times stronger" · "like chewing a urine-infested mattress"
underlipton
Natto/Hakarl/Haggis face-off.
harrall
I’ve had it and it doesn’t taste that bad. If you don’t mind blue cheese, it’s not that much worse.
It smells like cleaning fluid from under your sink cabinet though. That’s the main issue.
potato3732842
Somewhere there's a video of some Youtubers who are relevant in another niche eating that as part of a trip to Iceland. The Icelandic guy hosting them isn't a fan but eats it. The second guy tries it and hates it. The guy who was a connoisseur of french stuff says "it's like a good stinky french cheese" and asks for more.
lysace
Ah yes, that most well-known Icelandic innovation...
tromp
> With the help of a mathematical model that linked size with age, they estimated that one sixteen-foot female was at least two hundred and seventy-two years old, and possibly as much as five hundred and twelve years old. Because it is difficult to establish background carbon-14 levels in the ocean, and because Nielsen and his colleagues didn’t know which part of the ocean the sharks had been born in, the figure was inexact. Still, it firmly established Greenland sharks as the longest-living vertebrates on Earth. In theory, the biggest ones could be nearly six centuries old.
zabzonk
Can you imagine what a boring existence they must have? Live forever, and do almost nothing.
BurningFrog
You can also think of it as calm bliss.
apercu
You're right, they should totally die much earlier from stress-related illnesses like the rest of us!
Mistletoe
>A Greenland shark's heart beats once every 10 seconds (6 times per minute).
More fuel for the fire for the theory that we all get about the same number of heartbeats in a lifetime. Well, I'm off to do my weekly long run to lower my resting heart rate during the week.
yonaguska
Good news- I still have a much lower resting heart rate from running years ago- I haven't run in about 12 years due to compounding injuries- but the benefits are still there. It's finally starting to go up to normal, but it used to freak nurses and doctors when they'd measure it.
Mistletoe
I feel like gains from running stay with you a long time also. Once I was a runner, it was so much easier to go back to running five miles easily if I ever quit and went back to it. I think there is some body and muscle memory that remains.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark
> The flesh of the Greenland shark is toxic because of the presence of high concentrations of urea and trimethylamine oxide (TMAO).
Evolution can be so clever.