There are whales in the Arctic that have been alive since before the American Civil War. The reason? They simply don’t get sick.
Bowhead whales are the longest living mammals on the planet, living up to 250 years (or perhaps longer). These massive cetaceans have a much higher resistance to cancer and aging than other mammals, and scientists are in the midst of studying their DNA to figure out why.
Generally, the scientific community agrees that the more cells an organism has, the higher risk it has for developing cancer. However, scientists Caulin and Maley, authors of a study in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, said that this is not the case in these large whales. One-hundred-ton bowheads have “over 1,000 times more cells than humans, but do not exhibit an increased cancer risk, suggesting the existence of natural mechanisms that can suppress cancer more effectively in these animals,” they stated.
Because large whales like the bowhead don’t have many natural predators, they grow slowly, reproduce later, and have also evolved “natural mechanisms that suppress age-related diseases and degeneration,” according to researcher Dr. João Pedro de Magalhães.
De Magalhães said in a press release, “My view is that species evolved different ‘tricks’ to have a longer lifespan, and by discovering the ‘tricks’ used by the bowhead we may be able to apply those findings to humans in order to fight age-related diseases.”
Scientists hope that they may find that bowhead “secret” to living longer, disease-free lives, and think that they will be able to apply it to human medicine in the future.
GIFS from the bowhead whale video seen here:
