SpaceSilicon Canalsabout 2 hours ago
Methuselah pine is 4,855 years old
10 min read
A Great Basin bristlecone pine nicknamed Methuselah in California's White Mountains has been alive for 4,855 years, germinating before the Great Pyramid was built. The tree grows in nutrient-starved dolomite soil that kills competitors. Its genome, sequenced by UC Davis and Johns Hopkins, is 24 billion base pairs with unusually long telomeres and dense disease-resistance genes.
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