Old Sharks Welcome! You are encouraged to register with the site and login (for free). When you register, you support the site and your question history is saved.Recently, scientists determined that great white sharks can live over 70 years, much longer than had been previously thought. They made the discovery by examining the layers of different colors that accumulated on the shark's teeth over the years. In the 1950s, atomic bomb testing produced unusually large amounts of carbon-14, which fell from the atmosphere into the ocean and accumulated as a distinctive layer on the shark's teeth corresponding to a known period in time. Perplexingly, even though great white sharks live longer than had been expected, some parties maintain that based on the new findings, the great white sharks must be protected from overfishing. Which of the following, if true, best resolves the discrepancy identified above? Great white sharks need to be protected from overfishing because they are dying rapidly due to poisoning by carbon-14. Great white sharks were determined to live longer than had been previously thought based on the discovery of a carbon-14-rich layer within older sharks' teeth. Great white sharks are evidently endangered and therefore need to be protected from overfishing. Some great white sharks may have rich layers of carbon-14 from other sources, depending on their migration patterns. Great white sharks' longer lifespan implies that they mature more slowly and reproduce more slowly than had previously been assumed. Review Answer