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Meet Methuselah, likely oldest aquarium fish

26 January 2022
19282
2022-01-26 15:09

Methuselah is the oldest person mentioned in the Bible, said to have lived to be 969 years old. It may not be quite that ancient, but a primitive creature living in a San Francisco museum, named after the biblical character, is believed to be the oldest living aquarium fish in the world.

Methuselah is a four-foot-long Australian lungfish, weighing around 40 pounds. The primitive species have lungs and gills and are believed to be the evolutionary link between fish and amphibians. Brought to the California Academy of Sciences in 1938 from Australia, Methuselah was already believed to be around five or six years old. So biologists now estimate Methuselah to be 90. Methuselah's caretakers also believe the fish is female, although it's difficult to determine the species' sex without a risky blood draw. The Australian lungfish is now a threatened species and can no longer be exported from Australian waters.

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