The Greenland shark is the world’s longest living vertebrate. It can live for 400 years—twice the age of the longest-living land animal, the giant tortoise. There could be an individual in the ocean today that was alive during the 1665 Great Plague of London and George Washington’s presidential inauguration in 1789.

Despite its name, the Greenland shark is not only found in Greenland; it has been spotted as far away as the western Caribbean. Also known as the gray, ground, gurry, or sleeper shark, this animal lives in incredibly cold, deep waters, so it is much less studied than many of the more than 500