I actually fact checked this and it’s true.
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It is partly true. Polaris is in fact a triple star system. The youngest of the three stars (Polaris Aa) is indeed younger than sharks at between 45 and 67My old. It is in tight orbit with Polaris Ab which is 500My old, and Polaris B which is 1.5By old and a little bit farther away. Here’s a pic from Hubble:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polaris_alpha_ursae_minoris.jpg
I feel cheated that the north star is in fact 3 stars.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that Polaris Aa, the youngest star in the triplet, is also the brightest by 3 orders of magnitude. Without Polaris Aa, we wouldn’t actually consider it as the North Star at all…so I think you are safe to continue using this as a fact.
Go blow some people’s minds, everyone!
Me too. It’s a sick fact. Sharks are still older than trees tho…
I want to know how three stars can form as a system at very different times. Shouldn’t they have similar ages?
My understanding is that, on a cosmic scale, these timeframes are not tremendously different!
Wow, sharks @439mya, Polaris @70mya. They’re more than 6 times older! This is NUTS!
What’s even crazier is sharks are even older than trees!
Honestly, I disagree. It is much more surprising to me that lifeforms I recognize are older than stars. They’re different timescales in my mind that I never even considered comparing.
That’s way back. What else was around in the oceans back then? Bony fish? Crabs? My octobuddies?
Queen Elizabeth
And then you add the fact that sharks have barely evolved because they’ve been the perfect silent killer since the dawn of time.
Another fun fact:
Sharks don’t make sound. They don’t have any organ for the purpose of making sound. That is creepy as all hell.Just because they didn’t change their appearance doesnt mean they did not evolve. It is somewhat misleading to say that, but conveys a point I guess.
I made sure to say barely instead of not at all, but you’re right, there was certainly some evolution happening
More relevantly, the fossil records for sharks are mostly their teeth and jaws, because all their other bones are cartilage and rarely fossilize.
“Sharks haven’t significantly evolved in appearance in 350 million years” is therefore based on reconstructions made under the assumption that the old sharks mostly looked like current sharks, which may or may not be true.
Though we can get a surprising amount of information that way, for example one change is that their jaws used be more at the end of their snout instead of more underslung like today, like so:
You’ll note the Goblin Shark still has hints of that design.
That can’t be true. I distinctly remember the shark in Jaws: The Revenge roaring. So get your facts straight.
And it always plays this ominous music when approaching their prey.
Sharks played the cello one billion years before the Big Bang occurred.
Just to get in the zone when hunting
Do any fish?
Yes, actually. Example: Triglidae
They are bottom-dwelling fish, living down to 200 m (660 ft), although they can be found in much shallower water. Most species are around 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) in length. They have an unusually solid skull, and many species also possess armored plates on their bodies. Another distinctive feature is the presence of a “drumming muscle” that makes sounds by beating against the swim bladder
And they’re gonna go away because some wingnut convinced a bunch of people that their fins cause boners.
Sharks watching stars come and go: strange fireflies…
I always thought they were gigantic balls of gas burning millions of miles away
Pumbaa, with you, everything’s gas.
Wow, this is one of the most complicated Snopes analyses I’ve seen. But it seems like the statement is accurate with caveats. If the brightest component of Polaris is probably 50 million years old what was there before wasn’t really Polaris. And then it doesn’t make a difference whether sharks have been around for 450 million or 195 million years.
