One of the oldest and largest organisms on which DNA has been tested today is not a scaly crocodile, a species of bird, or even a continuous kelp island. According to scientists, this huge organism, which includes up to 40-50 thousand members, lives in an area of 43 hectares in the North American state of Utah.
According to some researchers, it is the largest living organism today Connected object He holds a specialty A Bando clone It is named after the state of Utah (Interstate 25 runs right through it). It is only one Poplar forest.
If it’s a clone, isn’t it the original plant?
But, yes!
“A clone means a descendant organism created vegetatively from the original organism, which… Its genetic stock is identical to that of the parent organism“- We will find doctor. Susanna Nemethy From a retired university assistant professor, certified horticulturist, and plant protection engineer. “It can also occur naturally. This can be observed in the case of the Pandu tree population. In local horticultural practice, the Vegetative propagation“The term ‘diffusion’ for this widespread phenomenon.”
The term reproduction in this area, which may also be considered a poplar forest by the casual observer, refers to the fact that the entire mass of trees It comes from a single seed. In other words, what we see as separate trees on the surface are all like that They are part of the same root system.
It spreads in such a way that the root growing in the ground sends more and more shoots to the surface.
“This strange formation The only American summer that rocks- (Populus tremuloides) formed from a plant that developed from a seed such that buds developed on its roots, including independent plants. They reproduced and reproduced asexually, that is New individuals on their common root system They are connected to each other, which is why they called this plant group one plant – explains the plant protection engineer. This is the phenomenon Known for its local poplar trees (Populus sp.) Also called root shoot. It is also common in bony fruit trees, and is an unpleasant phenomenon in gardens. Among other things, poplars also have dense root system formation.”
Clone Pando is one of the oldest living organisms on the planetVolkswagen Images/Getty Images Hungary
“It’s about being the original plant Its root system is constantly growing and renewing itself. The offspring that grow on them, with exactly the same genetic makeup, continue the life of the tree. The original trunk and crown of the tree died after a certain age, and this happened again in later stages as well, but constantly with new shoots It is renewed and remains alive Ancient poplar– adds the specialist.
How old could this root scion forest be?
By some accounts, there are a lot Trees over 130 years old Also in the cloned forest, but according to estimates, the formation of the root system itself, which originally developed from a single seed, may have already begun at the end of the last ice age.
“Regarding the age of Pando, it represents the end of the last ice age, which was about 10 to 11 thousand years ago, but the trees that exist today, which develop from buds, are about 100 years old, So I’m not Methuselah at all They are ancient – sums up the horticulturist and plant conservation engineer, then adds: “The local wood matuzhasalam, for example, is 300-400 years old, Its planting time is generally uncertain. The Árpad Valley tree in Hedervar is considered the oldest, but I am skeptical about its supposed age. This can/is determined by ring counting, combined with 14C isotope testing. Its data is original from nearly 10,000 years ago. For age determination tests Sampling, destruction required, “So they need a lot of care.”
The existence of organisms spanning an unimaginably long period of time is nothing new in the scientific world, and perhaps only the ordinary, far-fetched mind would be surprised by the shocking numbers.
The aspen plant reached the forefront of scientific interest in the 1970s, but researchers still search for traces of ancient creatures with an unquenchable curiosity. In 2018, Ilya Bobrovsky came across the White Sea on the shores of the Russian Northern Inland Sea of the Arctic Ocean. Kimberella and Dickinsonia Named fossils. Both Ediacara organisms, primitive molluscs that live on the ocean floor, inhabited our planet 5 to 600 million years ago, and one of them consumed bacteria and algae that served as food in a manner similar to modern animals today.
The Pando clone is also a great link between the past and the presentVolkswagen Images/Getty Images Hungary
First animals
California University of Berkeley Cell biology and at the same time The head of his research group is Daniel Rockchar Recently published scientific discovery according to which The sponge was removed, As the first common ancestors of terrestrial animals. The scientist said that it is not easy to search for the ancestors of these animals, because they are molluscs, and no fossil traces remain of them. Just in advance of the common ancestor Animals alive today It was more useful to researchers.
The beginning of life
The planet can show dates dating back much further. the The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old But recent research results indicate that advanced, multicellular life is the oldest plants They were organisms resembling red algae about 1.6 billion years ago. At least that’s what he found Therese Salstedt, Swedish Museum of Natural History Biological. Therefore, life on Earth itself was older than that, perhaps roughly 3.7 to 4.2 billion years ago It probably started with marine bacteria.
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