[stripes1776]

"Getting a handle on how old these organisms are is hard; most estimates are based on growth rates," which can have large errors, team member Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra also of the University of California, Davis said.

Since they don't know how old the tree is, all they have to do is cut it down and count the rings.

[Freedom4US]

Yup, good ole WPN-114. Up until the drill bit broke, it was the oldest tree known. So they cut it down, because swedish drill bits don’t grow on trees. Ha ha.