If you are feeling your age, then spare a thought for the Greenland shark.

A team of scientists has discovered the giant fish can live to be 400 years old, with one female estimate to be 392 years old.

This means that a shark swimming in the North Atlantic today could have been born in 1624 - the decade the Mayflower carried the Pilgrim Fathers to North America, and not long after William Shakespeare penned his best-loved plays. She would have been a youngster when the Declaration of Independence was signed and would have lived through two World Wars.

The incredible discovery makes the species, which can grow up to 21 feet long, the longest living vertebrate known to science. (Mail Online)