Scientists have estimated that bowhead whales — the longest-living whale species — can live more than 200 years.
It was once thought that the bowhead’s cousin, the right whale, had an average lifespan of about 70 to 80 years, but new research has revised that estimate to more than 130 years — nearly twice as long!
“From the standpoint of physiological scaling, these superannuated ages should not be unexpected. Whales are the largest living animals, and body size is highly correlated with longevity,” the authors of the study wrote.
The researchers worked with Indigenous subsistence hunters from Utqiaġvik, Alaska. They used chemical analysis of bowhead whales that had been killed to demonstrate that they are able to live more than two centuries, a press release from University of Alaska Fairbanks said.
The chemical evidence was corroborated by harpoon tips from the 19th century being recovered from bowheads killed during modern hunts.
Right whales are more closely related to bowheads than any …