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The world ’s oldest aquarium fish , alungfish advert Methuselah , may in reality be decade sr. than researchers in the first place thought and may even be over 100 years old , a unexampled study find .
Methuselah is a distaff Australian lungfish ( Neoceratodus forsteri ) that lodge in at Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco , California . She first arrive at the aquarium in 1938 after being sent to the U.S. along with more than 200 other Pisces from Fiji and Australia .
The Australian lungfish “Methuselah” swims in her tank at Steinhart Aquarium in California. She was believed to be 84 years old but a new study suggests she could be over 100.
Aquarium staff have never been certain how old Methuselah is , but until now the estimable surmisal was that she is 84 years old , which make her the oldest known Pisces the Fishes in captivity . ( In the Bible , Methuselah was a Isle of Man who reputedly live to be 969 years old . )
The senior fish , who know belly snag and is hand - fed figs by her doting steward , shows no signs of slow up down , which has added to the confusion about her age . So researchers decided to knead out exactly how old she is using a " DNA age clock . "
In the study , researcher compared Methuselah’sDNAto the hereditary material of other Australian lungfish to put to work out how much wear down and snap her DNA had accumulated . The result suggest that she is most likely long time 92 , but the degree of uncertainty with this type of experimentation means she could be up to 101 year old . The study will be published afterward this twelvemonth .
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" Although we hump Methuselah amount to us in the belated thirties , there was no method for determining her age at that time,“Charles Delbeek , curator of aquarium projects at Steinhart Aquarium , enunciate in astatement . It ’s " fantastically exciting " to have a better understanding of her genuine age , he summate .
The researcher compared the DNA of 30 Australian lungfish from captivity and the wilderness , including two other lungfish at the Steinhart Aquarium . The squad analyzed the amount ofmethylationin the fishes ' genetic fabric . Methylation is a biologic process by which methyl group groups — a carbon particle bound to three atomic number 1 particle — are added to the DNA molecule . From this , they were able to work out how long it would have take for Methuselah to progress up the bit of methyl mathematical group found in her DNA .
Methuselah being hand-fed by her keepers at Steinhart Aquarium.
The researcher are unsure how foresightful Methuselah could subsist for , but as more individuals are try out , the deoxyribonucleic acid clock for the specie will become more accurate and help unravel this mystery , study co - authorDavid Roberts , a researcher at the Australian River Institute at Griffith University , said in the affirmation . But regardless of how long she will live for , there are no known lungfish old than Methuselah , he added .
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In the state of nature , Australian lungfish are find exclusively in a subset of river in Queensland , Australia . These rivers can be extremely unstable : During wry geological period , the river can stagnate , which reduces the level of usable atomic number 8 in the water . When breathing underwater becomes too difficult , the Pisces are capable of swim to the control surface and breathing air through a individual lung , hence their name , according to theAustralian Museum .
Lungfish are often called " last dodo " because they have rest comparatively unaltered for millions of class . The oldest fossil of a lungfish from the genusNeoceratodusdates back to around 380 million year during theDevonian period(419.2 million to 358.9 million geezerhood ago ) , according to the Australian Museum .
However , the species ' future is becoming more unsure . Australian lungfish are threaten by human building task , such as dams , that have altered their habitat . They are presently heel as endangered by theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) Red List of Threatened Species .
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The researchers hope that the new DNA age clock can be an effectual tool in helping to conserve the ancient species .
" Accurately knowing the years of fish in a universe , let in the maximum age , is vital for their direction , " study lead authorBenjamin Mayne , a molecular biologist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) in Australia , said in the command . " This tells us just how long a mintage can survive and procreate in the wilderness , which is critical for model population viability and generative potentiality for a mintage . "
