There are older examples of clonal plants. For example, a creosote bush Larrea tridentata found in in the desert near Palm Springs, California, USA — aged at 11, years old — is a clone, as individual specimens of this species rarely exceed years.
Some scientists have suggested that the clonal forest of quaking aspen Populus tremuloides , known as Pando, in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, USA the world's most massive single plant and heaviest organism could date back as far as 14, years, which would also make it the world's oldest living organism, but this is widely debated and unconfirmed at this point.
However, this too would be an example of vegetative cloning rather than an individual tree of this age, as spruce trees are thought to only live for, at most, a few centuries.
Previously, pine trees in North America have been cited as the oldest at 4, to 5, years old. In the Swedish mountains, from Lapland in the North to Dalarna in the South, scientists have found a cluster of around 20 spruces that are over 8, years old. Although summers have been colder over the past 10, years, these trees have survived harsh weather conditions due to their ability to push out another trunk as the other one died.
Therefore, we can now see that these spruces have begun to straighten themselves out. There is also evidence that spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change.
The ability of spruces to survive harsh conditions also presents other questions for researchers. Have the spruces actually migrated here during the Ice Age as seeds from the east 1, kilometres over the inland ice that that then covered Scandinavia? With a death-defying 4, years under its belt, this Great Basin bristlecone pine deserves its name. This is considered to be the oldest non-clonal organism i. Stop and think about that for just a moment.
This tree was a sapling at the dawn of the Egyptian civilization, hundreds of years old during the building of Stonehenge, and by the time Chinese civilization was just beginning on the banks of the Yellow River, Methuselah was already over hundred years old. This is truly a staggering thought. Methuselah is located 10, feet above sea level in Inyo National Forest in California. But in an effort to protect the tree from vandalism, its exact location remains a closely-held secret protected by the U.
Forest Service. Spreading across more than acres, Pando is believed to be over 80, years old and collectively weighs over 6, tons, making it the heaviest organism on the planet, as well as one of the oldest.
Also known as the Zoroastrian Sarv, this tree took root between 4, and 4, years ago, making it the oldest living organism in Asia. Located in the graveyard of St. The shoots only measure a few feet tall and they grow outward from the site of the original shoot at a rate of approximately one-twentieth of an inch per year.
They rely on fire to burn down the stems and trigger new growth. Unfortunately for the Jurupa Oak, suburban California is encroaching on all sides. It could then fly about and avoid predators, just like a bat. It will die fairly quickly and so waste the benefit of evolving and growing those wings. Mice with wings will start to live longer firstly by avoiding predators, while those flying mice with slightly better cell repair systems than others will live even longer and so begin a gradual improvement in cell maintenance, which over generations would produce a flying mouse — a bat, in other words — that lives for much longer.
And that is what we see in nature, says Kirkwood. A similar effect is seen in humans and chimps. The two species evolved from a common ancestor about seven million years ago. As a result, he adds, our lifespans are now twice those of chimpanzees. The first organisms that appeared on Earth may only have had very short existences, but as new niches were found, expectations of living longer have slowly risen.
Today, as a result, life endures for varying lengths of time across the globe in just about every possible place.
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