Although scientists suspected that this organism was thousands of years old, they were unable to determine its approximate age. This has just changed with a recent genetic study.
Pando looks like any other forest aspen, the most common tree in North America.
However, the reality is that she is hiding an awesome secret.
THE scientists discovered that the thousands of poplars that make it up have the same genetic material and are part of a single tree which would have born between 16,000 and 80,000 years ago. This makes one of the oldest living things on the planet .
Although it is not the only “clone” forest in the world, it is the largest known to date. In fact, the weight of its trees makes the organism weigh approximately 13 million tonnes .
What Pando, one of the oldest living things on Earth, looks like
This impressive organism, located near Fish Lake, Utah (USA), is made up of a colony of 47,000 living shoots. All of these poplars are genetically identical and are connected by a network of roots, occupying an area of more than 40 hectares.
According to the BBC Although scientists suspected that this tree was thousands of years old, they were unable to determine its exact age.
But that has just changed. Thanks to a recent genetic study, a team of researchers suggests that Pando could be at least 16,000 years old.
How Pando’s Age Was Determined
With her colleagues, biologist Rozenn Pineau of the Georgia Institute of Technology collected 500 Pando samples including roots, leaves and pieces of bark.
The idea was to obtain genetic data from the tree, including somatic mutations in order to study its evolutionary history and its approximate age.
According to the researcher, at the beginning “all their cells contained essentially identical DNA”. However, “every time a new cell is created and the genetic information is replicated, errors can occur and introduce mutations into the DNA,” he added.
When they focused on analyzing these genetic mutations in the aspen trees that make up this organism, they were able to uncover its evolutionary history.
Questions about Pando’s age
During their study, Pineau and his colleagues chose to do three estimates of Pando’s age due to the possibility that there were undetected somatic mutations or that they were false positives, describes the British media.
The results they reached are varied: taking into account that 6% of the mutations analyzed are “true positives”, Pando could be 16,000 years old. Meanwhile, including undetected mutations, the age rises to 81,000 years.
Given the above, the biologist and her colleagues concluded that it was best to determine the age to be within this range.
The researchers assure that the three estimates lead to the same conclusion: This Utah tree has a surprisingly long lifespan, considering it’s been “growing since the last ice age,” Pineau said.
Source: Latercera
I am David Jack and I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years. As an experienced journalist, I specialize in covering sports news with a focus on golf. My articles have been published by some of the most respected publications in the world including The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
