Posted by
timothy
on from the it's-an-old-family dept.
RoosterT writes: "AP is reporting that an 11,000+ year-old lifeform has been found in California. The lifeform? A bush. This bush threatens to topple the current world-record holder. Another bush."
How are they testing?
by
arkham6
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Someone please explain to me how they can use radio carbon dating on the bush? It was my understanding that RCD could tell the age of things because it counted the number of carbon 14 isotopes left in the item. As time goes on, that isotope decays, and that can tell an age. However, because its still alive, isnt its supply of carbon 14 still being replenished?
Re:How are they testing?
by
zenyu
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
So it is quite possible that there are older things in the rain forest, but we have no way of knowing.
IANB...
I'm loathe to say anything is impossible, but I highly doubt it. The reason clones weaken isn't because they get weaker but because their attacker's get stronger. The current favorites in the apple world are all about 100-150 years old and need shitloads of pestisides. But they were originally selected for hardyness not just sweetness and color. It's just their viruses and parasites didn't stop evolving. (Apple trees are cloned because they "go to seed." Meaning the children are nothing like the parents. Now I know what my parents were talking about.)
This bush can probably survive because there are few potential bugs in the neighborhood. In a rainforest there is so much life that something would evolve to attack it long before it turned 11kyo.
Still a 11kyo plants makes me think there is probably a reason why our natural lifespans are limited. Maybe cuz populations that lived longer stiffled their descendants and hence lowered the fitness of the total population. I think that must have happened long before humans came along since the only animals that have a really long lifespan are fish and reptiles, no mammals that I know of. This last bit is just speculation, but I hope someone who can test the theory is thinking along these lines.
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Someone please explain to me how they can use radio carbon dating on the bush? It was my understanding that RCD could tell the age of things because it counted the number of carbon 14 isotopes left in the item. As time goes on, that isotope decays, and that can tell an age. However, because its still alive, isnt its supply of carbon 14 still being replenished?