• whotookkarl@lemmy.worldEnglish
    633·
    7 days ago

    Greenland sharks are pretty amazing

    They can grow up to 24 feet putting them at the same giant scale as great whites and basking sharks, but most are usually closer to 5 meters long

    They can live for hundreds of years due to extremely slow metabolism and ambush feeding, some individuals found around 400 years old are as old as the Jamestown colony, Don Quixote, and the discovery of logarithms.

    They are opportunistic feeders and have been found with polar bear and reindeer in their digestive systems, and can pull/vacuum in water to catch their primary prey of fish, eels, and other sharks.

    • MeatPilot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      7 days ago

      Back to the horrors of the deep…

      They also commonly have eye parasites that severely impairs their vision or blinds them called Ommatokoita elongata.

      So they get to live long with multiple generations of parasites stuck in their eyes they can’t get out.

    • notabot@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      6 days ago

      So 5 meter long sharks with 24 feet? That sounds terrifying. How far up the beach can they run?

    • Artyom@lemm.eeEnglish
      14·
      6 days ago

      Be me

      young shark, ready to make my mark on the world

      Find a book falling from the sky called Don Quixote

      eh_mid.jpg

      Ignore humans for a few hundred years, eat some fish instead

      Find out it’s become a core component of their identity and everyone knows about it

      Even had a ballet about it

      wtf

      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        6 days ago

        Don Quixote is actually an awesome book, you should definitely read or listen to it. Give it a bit to get rolling, and you will absolutely be doubled over with laughter

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      Are they the ones where you have to ferment the flesh or it is toxic? Or wasn’t that a shark?