Southern right whales have lifespans that reach well past 100 years, and 10% may live past 130 years, according to our new research published in the journal Science Advances. Some of these whales may live to 150. This lifespan is almost double the 70-80 years they are conventionally believed to live. North Atlantic right whales were also thought to have a maximum lifespan of about 70 years. We found, however, that this critically endangered species' current average lifespan is only 22 years, and they rarely live past 50. These two species are very closely related ' only 25 years ago they were considered to be one species ' so we'd expect them to have similarly long lifespans. We attribute the stark difference in longevity in North Atlantic right whales to human-caused mortality, mostly from entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes. We made these new age estimates using photo identification of individual female whales over several decades. Individual whales can be recognized...
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