The oldest living thing on earth is a bristlecone pine located in the White Mountains of California, USA. When discovered and tested in 2013, it was determined to be 5,064 years old. When it sprouted in 3051 BC, the Aegean Bronze Age had just begun, Egyptians were developing Hieroglyphic writing, and China was developing the potter’s wheel.
Prior to the discovery of this tree, the title of World’s Oldest Tree was held by another bristlecone pine, also in the White Mountains of California. When tested in 1957, this tree, known as Methuselah, showed an estimated germination date of 2880 BC, making it 4,846 years old.
Categories: Accomplishments and Records, Biology
The Bristlecone pine is the oldest non-colonial organism. When it comes to colonial species, sea sponges break the record.
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The bristlecones are old but are not in the top 10 oldest organisms on the planet. They are however the oldest non clonal trees. Their are at least 3 species of clonal eucalypts in Australia that grow older, some can be 10000 years old, and the Norway spruce in Sweden lives to 10000 years old. Then their is the ocean life. Sea sponges, and stromatolites and the like.
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