What is the oldest living thing on Earth?

ByRick Goldwaser

There are many creatures with a much longer lifespan than humans on the earth, but the BBC summarizes what it means to be "one that is alive from the oldest on earth".

The oldest living thing on Earth - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40224991


BritishQueen GardenUnder the chestnut tree of 300 years in age in the town, Tony Kirkham, the director, says that trees can live longer than animals. In order to prove this, it is necessary to conduct several detection studies, "First of all, it is necessary to investigate past records and to check whether trees are growing for a certain period of time. Next, old paintings and works of art You can also see if the tree existed there long ago.In addition, the old land survey chart sometimes shows particularly important trees as ancient trees, " Thing.

As a method for measuring the age of trees, a method of counting annual rings is famous. As growth grows, annual rings increase, this is a process called dendrite chronology, annual growth seems to be a method that can be applied only to some trees. However, the problem with this method is that it is necessary to cut the tree trunk to confirm the annual ring. In addition, experts in tree cultivation seem to pierce trees using a punch machine to check the annual rings without cutting the tree trunks.

ByTaras Kalapun

The American researcher team has a list of trees that mark their age. According to them, in Sri Lanka there is a tree of 2222 years old fig tree and Chile has a cypress tree of aged 3627 years. It is said that the age of about 3600 years is the life that was born as long ago as the Stonehenge in the UK.

In the valley named Metosela in White Mountain, California, there is Bristol cone pine (Ige goyoyumatsu) age 4850. It is also said that there are Bristol cones and pines of the age of 5067 in the same place, and it is speculated that this tree is the oldest tree in the world.

ByClinton Steeds

Well then, if this Bristol cone pine of about 5000 years old is the world's oldest life, it depends on how to define a "single tree".

In Fish Lake National Park, which is located in the Utah state of the United States, there is a poplar tree "Aspen tree" that is similar to white birch which is difficult for most people to recognize as "tree". This is called "Pando", and the etymology means "spread" in Latin. Pandos are so big that they are so large that everyone mistakes the forest. It is said that it is about the same size as the Vatican City country if it says how big it is actually. Nonetheless, Pando is germinating from one species, with estimated that the stem of 50,000 trees is supported by a single huge rhizome.


Professor Karen Mock, a population geneticist at Utah State University says, "There were various age estimation data, but there are few existing original trees anymore." As Pando has many clonal trees growing from the rhizome, it is very difficult to estimate the age of Pand itself. Scientists are trying to estimate the age from the size of Pando, and are inaccurate, saying "thousands of years to about 80,000 years". Professor Mock also states that it may be possible to estimate the age from "how many DNA mutations are accumulated".

If Pand is alive for 80,000 years, will it come when you die? According to Joao Paolo de Magallaes expert at the University of Liverpool, "All living creatures are determined to die, so immortal species do not exist."

The "the oldest living animal in the world" which has been confirmed at present is found in AntarcticaSpongesIt is said that the estimated age is 15,000 years. However, "I do not know certain things, because nobody can confirm 15,000 years ago," Mr. Magallaes said, there is a possibility that the estimated value has a big error.

Bristol cone pine in White Mountain is the oldest living thing among the precisely aged creatures currently present on the earth. It is possible that Pandos and Antarctic sponges have existed on the earth long ago, but we can not measure their exact age at the present time.