It's green and very, very old. A swathe of seagrass in the Mediterranean could be the oldest known living thing on Earth.
Carlos Duarte of the University of Western Australia in Perth sequenced the DNA of Posidonia oceanica at 40 sites spanning 3500 kilometres of seafloor, from Spain to Cyprus. One patch off the island of Formentera was identical over 15 kilometres of coastline.
Like all seagrasses, Posidonia oceanica reproduces by cloning, so meadows spanning many kilometres are genetically identical and considered one organism.
Given the plant's annual growth rate the team calculated that the Formentera meadow must be between 80,000 and 200,000 years old, making it the oldest living organism on Earth. It trumps a Tasmanian seagrass, Lomatia tasmanica, believed to be 43,600 years old.
Despite its historical robustness, Duarte says the patch of P.?oceanica is now threatened by climate change. The Mediterranean is warming three times faster than the world average, and each year P.?oceanica meadows decline by around 5?per cent. "They have never experienced the speed of climate that the Mediterranean is currently experiencing," he says.
Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030454
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
oklahoma state santonio holmes raheem morris winter classic mt rainier stanford vs oklahoma state caucus
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.