Some whales are more than 100 years old, smashing previously estimated life expectancies, according to new research.
A recent report published in Science Advances concluded that most great whale species have an “unrecognized potential for great longevity that has been masked by the demographic disruptions of industrial whaling.”
Researchers examining southern right whales found that the median life span for the species was 73.4 years, and that 10 percent of individuals survived past 131.8 years.
The report has combined decades-long photo records with the same statistical approach companies use to set life insurance rates.
“In the context of extreme longevity recently documented in other whale species, we suggest that all balaenid and perhaps most great whales have an unrecognized potential for great longevity that has been masked by the demographic disruptions of industrial whaling,” the study states.
“This unrecognized longevity has profound implications for basic biology and conservation of whales,” it added.
Researchers have used several methods previously to try to gauge whale ages, such as counting the layers in their earwax, and measuring a chemical transformation in eye proteins that occurs at a regular rate.
Scientists have also drawn on historical evidence – the harpoon tips embedded in the animals’ blubber.
The study notes that in 2007, a whale was taken in a traditional hunt and found to have an explosive Yankee Whaler harpoon tip embedded in its blubber, which was last manufactured in 1885. These artifacts suggested that bowhead whales can and have lived at least 130 years.
Such data suggest the bowhead whale – a species that lives in the Arctic – tends to live longer on average. Scientists noted that one bowhead whale lived 211 years.
However, a number of other species can live past 100 years, including blue, fin and beluga whales.