X-Message-Number: 15156 From: "Jan Coetzee" <> Subject: Whales live longer than thought Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 01:03:01 -0500 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_00F7_01C06AE9.C3D4C7C0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Whales live longer than thought San Jose, California - New research in California, Seattle and Alaska has indicated that bowhead whales in Northern Alaska routinely live over 150 years, and that one whale may have lived to the ripe old age of 211, according to a report on Tuesday. The research seems to overturn previous scientific theories that whales generally live to 80 or 100 years. It also indicates that the world's largest mammals are also the world's oldest mammals, easily beating elephants and parrots (70 years), tortoises (100 years) and the oldest human, who lived to the age of 122. "This just about doubles what everyone thought was the longevity of a large whale," said marine biologist Steven Webster, the founder of the respected Monterey Bay Aquarium, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Scientists arrived at their estimates using two methods. Some measured the changing levels of amino acids in the eyes of dead whales. This allowed scientists to estimate the age of three bowhead whales killed by Inupiat Eskimos recently at between 135 to 172 years old. A fourth whale was estimated to have been killed at the age of 211. The evidence was corroborated by the presence of ancient slate and ivory harpoon tips in the blubber of the whales, tips that have not been used since at least the 1880s when the Eskimos were introduced to steel-tipped harpoons. These whales were likely to have been swimming around for 120 years after surviving hunting attacks. Evidence of the bowheads' longevity is now likely to prod scientists to reconsider their estimates for the lifespan of other whale species, like bluewhales, humpbacks and grey whales, the report said. - Sapa-dpa ------=_NextPart_000_00F7_01C06AE9.C3D4C7C0 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15156