What is the world's largest living creature? Posted on 05/30/2006 11:14:02 PM PDT by LibWhacker
What is the world's largest living creature?
Scientists from the CSIC. the University of the Balearic Islands, Portugal, Carribean and the USA have discovered a Posidonia Oceanica, of more than 8 kilometers in length, and 100,000 years old.
The 'Posideonia Oceanica' is, in layman's terms 'sea grass', and the wavy plains of this plant found off the coasts Ibiza and Formentera, have been, since 1999, part of the reason for the award to Ibiza as a 'Heritage of Humanity'.
The huge plant was discovered between 'Es Freus' (the straits that separate Ibiza from Formentera) and the 'Ses Salines' beach....and quite by accident, as there are more than 100,000,000 of these plants in the area.
The bad news is that, because of the pollution in the Mediterranean, these plants are disappearing at the rate pf 5% per year.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
By your own logic....accurate to a point........then there were also, most certainly, years that yielded growth far beneath "average" due to currents, temperatures, other climatic conditions, salinity levels, etc. etc.
So.............is your point that the age is in question? Of course it is.
That sounds like significantly altered definitions of "sexes".
I'm not sure if the Living Dead qualify for the record. ;-)
I've already pinged everyone to here (see post 2).
Survival of the fittest rules. Too bad about this plant.
I knew it has been superseded. The previous single fungus (largest living organism) record was held (so to speak) by a fungus in Michigan, prior to the discovery of the one in Oregon.
Oh.
Did you know that one of the largest (if not the largest) antennas is undergound there in Michigan, 2.5 miles long if I remember correctly. It's used to communicate with underwater submarines.
Well, if you want to be picky about it, the actual age of this thing is 99,999 years 23hours 59 minutes and 59 and one half seconds. They just rounded it off to one 100,000 years for the sake of brevity. :~) Sloppy math on their part, but they probably figured that was close enough, for government work.
Yeah, part of Project Seafarer (if memory serves). A bunch of leftie loons opposed it of course.
This reminds me of the "X-Files" episode about a giant underground fungus in the Appalachians of North Carolina. Hikers were mysteriously disappearing and it turned out that the fungus secreted a psychotropic gas or spores which caused debilitating, paralyzing hallucinations and allowed the fungus to "digest" them.
Double yuck! EWWW!
there are more than 100,000,000 of these plants in the area. The bad news is that, because of the pollution in the Mediterranean, these plants are disappearing at the rate pf 5% per year.Uh oh. I guess the floating sea cows won't have any grazing left in twenty years.
Think that one through to the end and then get back to me.
"I'm really surprised at the increasing anti-science tone on FR."
It's a darn shame that some religiously oriented people can't see that the age and complexity of the world and the interactions of plants, animals, and minerals glorify God, whereas consigning God to the role of waver of magic wands deminishes Him.
In addition, given the agressive posture of China, Russia and several other less than friendly nations in scientific eduction and development, all patriotic Americans should be doing everything possible to encourage science education, not sabotageing it at every opportunity.
I just read a really scary novel "The Cobra Event," by Richard Preston, who also wrote "The Hot Zone" about the Ebola virus. The novel, while fiction, sticks close to fact in the science. It is about biological warfare and the dangers we face and from whom. FReepers, wake up and start learning science and encouraging your children to do so.
the age is not abnormal, many plants are technically immortal. They only die of predators, disease or changing environmental conditions. Under good conditions many plants can live for thousands of years at least, and simple plants like seagrass are even likelier to survive.
Scientists have found grass in the tundra regions that was 10.000 years old. And than I mean individual halms of grass of 10.000 years old! There simply aren't any diseases there to kill grass, no grass eaters in that region, and the grass had to deal with cold so was extremely sturdy.
Yes, but changing conditions would usually SLOW down growth rate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.