It sprang to life sometime
in the 3rd millennium, outliviving the kingdoms of ancient Egypt, it survived six of the
seven wonders of the ancient world, and it's older than Judaism. It survived 5,000 years (give or take a few hundred), and was cut down in 1964 by
Donald Currey, a graduate student in geography. He was studying the
Little Ice Age (prev), and he was looking for an old
Bristlecone pine in the White-Inyo mountain range of California (prev), as a record for climatic conditions from that period. As that tree, nicknamed
Prometheus, is no longer living, the record for
oldest tree goes to a tree from the same stand,
Methuselah. If trees aren't your thing, there are quite a few
long-living organisms of other sorts. For more fun and photos, join
Rachel Sussman on her journey to photograph them.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 4, 2010 -
43 comments
