This Bowhead whale could be older than Moby Dick! Find out how

We know prehistoric animals were huge and lived to be hundreds of years old, but what a lot of people don't know nowadays is that there are still massive animals that exist today which have lived to be around 200 years old. What creature holds this impressive attribute? The Bowhead Whale.

That means that these stocky, dorsal-finless swimmers were alive before Moby Dick was written in 1851. Though they were hunted by Yankee Whalers a while back, leaving them at the measly population of just over 1,000 individuals, the population of Bowhead Whales has slowly begun to increase. Thirty-four years ago scientists counted around 1,200 whales of the species. Today, the numbers are as high as 14,000.

These beautiful creatures have a massive bow-shaped skull over 16 and a half feet long that makes up about 30-40% of their total body length. The size and mass of their skull allows them puncture through thick ice. Bowhead whales also have the largest and thickest amount of blubber.

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