Sharks Existed Before Trees
Sharks have been swimming in Earth's oceans for over 400 million years, while trees only evolved around 350 million years ago, making sharks older than trees.
About this fact
Sharks are among Earth's most ancient survivors, predating not just dinosaurs but even trees. The earliest shark-like creatures appeared around 450 million years ago during the Ordovician period, while the first true trees (with woody trunks and complex root systems) didn't evolve until about 350-385 million years ago during the Devonian period. This means sharks roamed the oceans for at least 50-100 million years before the first forests existed. Early sharks lived in a world of coral reefs, trilobites, and primitive fish, but no land forests. Some ancient shark species, like the Greenland shark, can live over 400 years, meaning some individuals alive today were born before the United States was founded. The basic shark body plan has been so successful that it has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of millions of years - a testament to evolutionary perfection.