The news of the discovery of a 512-year-old shark circulated the internet on Dec 14th, but it turns out that it was little inaccurate.

According to the previous reports, scientists have discovered 18 feet long Green land Shark which was found in the North Atlantic Ocean which could have been born as early as 1505 suggesting that currently, it’s age is about 512 years.

Actually, Julius Nielsen, the Danish scientist who conducted the study using the Eye tissue analysis suggested that the sharks could potentially be as old as 512 but did not identify one above 500 years. H0wever, However, the study which included two biggest sharks examined and likely to be the oldest were estimated to be 335 and 392 years old.

Greenland sharks are usually found in icy waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic dwelling in -1C to 10C waters. They weigh up to 2,645 pounds (1,200 kilograms), can grow to be up to 24 feet (7 meters) long and can swim up to 9,101 ft deep into the waters according to the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG).

Usually, scientists use calcified vertebrae, a bony structure to track the age of a shark by reading rings that form in the hardened tissue as the shark ages. However, the Greenland sharks are called “soft sharks” as their vertebrae don’t harden enough to estimate their age. So, the scientists used radiocarbon dating to measure carbon isotopes absorbed by Greenland sharks’ eye tissue.

Then they found out that the average lifespan of the sharks was 392 years old and it could be between 272 years to 512 years old told Nielsen.

“It’s important to keep in mind there’s some uncertainty with this estimate, but even the lowest part of the age range — at least 272 years — still makes Greenland sharks the longest-living vertebrate known to science,” said Nielsen.