Posted on 02/07/2012 9:45:53 AM PST by null and void
Scientists say a patch of ancient seagrass in the Mediterranean is up to 200,000 years and could be the oldest known living thing on Earth. Australian researchers, who genetically sampled the seagrass covering 40 sites from Spain to Cyprus, say it is one of the world's most resilient organisms - but it has now begun to decline due to global warming.
The analysis, published in the journal PLos ONE, found the seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This is far older than the current known oldest species, a Tasmanian plant that is believed to be 43,000 years old.
Prof Carlos Duarte, from the University of Western Australia, said the seagrass has been able to reach such old age because it can reproduce asexually and generate clones of itself. Organisms that can only reproduce sexually are inevitably lost at each generation, he added.
"They are continually producing new branches," he told The Daily Telegraph. "They spread very slowly and cover a very large area giving them more area to mine resources. They can then store nutrients within their very large branches during bad conditions for growth."
The separate patches of seagrass in the Mediterranean span almost 10 miles and weigh more than 6,000 tons.
"The seagrass in the Mediterranean is already in clear decline due to shoreline construction and declining water quality and this decline has been exacerbated by climate change. As the water warms, the organisms move slowly to higher altitudes. The Mediterranean is locked to the north by the European continent.
"They cannot move. The outlook is very bad."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Ah, ok.
Thought this was a Nancy Pelosi thread.
Why was I expecting to see a picture of Helen Thomas?
Please, please, please....no pictures of Helen Thomas.
As God is my witness, my first thought on reading the title was that whatever the old thing was, it was being killed by glo-bull warming. I just knew that would be what this was about.
Plus a range of between 12,000 and 200,000? Darn nice of you to narrow it down so much there!
So what. They are only clones.
We should declare it a protected species and build an undersea 30’ concrete berm around it.
It’s a weed for cryin’ out loud!
Let it evolve or die.
I would have bet the farm that the first picture up would have been Helen Thomas.
Helen Thomas Ping!
....I STOPPED READING RIGHT THERE! LOL...hell, almost pinged the GGG list.
So then, Helen Thomas has died?
At 200,000 years, the thing would have gone through long periods of bigger warming, and very cold periods. Yet, in a period of relatively cool weather, those people would have us believe that, they can’t take it anymore?
The global warming crowd is getting more pathetic and more desperate each day.
It's over 12,000 years old, possibly over 125,000 years old, and today's temperatures are killing it. Interesting theory. It's very weak on scientific plausibility, but interesting that anyone would pretend to believe it.
You mean I was wrong... HELEN THOMAS is NOT the oldest living thing on the planet???
200,000 years old? How can that be when it’s only 2012????
bflr
Oh man - ROFL!!!
Of course there's always that evil man-made global warming terrorizing this pristine "resilient organism."
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