|
STOCKHOLM: The world’s oldest living tree on record is a nearly
10,000 year-old spruce that has been discovered in central Sweden,
Umeaa University said on Thursday.
Researchers had discovered a spruce with genetic
material dating back 9,550 years in the Fulu Mountain in Dalarna,
according to Leif Kullmann, a professor of Physical Geography at the
university in northwestern Sweden.
That would mean it had taken root in roughly the
year 7,542 BC.
“It was a big surprise because we thought
until [now] that this kind of spruce grew much later in those
regions,” he said.
Scientists had previously believed the world’s
oldest trees were 4,000- to 5,000-year-old pine trees found in North
America.
The new record-breaking tree was discovered in
Dalarna in 2004 when Swedish researchers were carrying out a census
of tree species in the region, Kullmann said.
The tree’s genetic material age had been
calculated using carbon dating at a laboratory in Miami, Florida.
Spruces, which according to Kullmann offer rich
insight into climate change, had long been regarded as relative
newcomers in the Swedish mountain region.
The discovery of the ancient tree had therefore
led to “a big change in our way of thinking,” he said.
-- AFP
|
