2000-Year-Old Judean Date Tree Seed Sprouts

Makarand writes "A date palm seed found during archaeological excavations at King Herod's palace on Mount Masada, near the Dead Sea, and whose age was confirmed to be 2000 years by carbon dating techniques has sprouted into a young tree.This historic seedling which sprouted 4 weeks after planting has grown six leaves and one has been removed for DNA tests. Scientists hope that the unique seedling will eventually yield vital clues to the medicinal properties of the fruit of the Judean date tree chronicled in the Bible and the Quran and which was long thought to be extinct."

Comments

Re:jurassic park anyone?

[CableModemSniper]

Yes, any second now the date tree is going to escape its pen and go on a murderous rampage. It will also change genders in order to breed with itself and produce more deadly date trees.

Does this remind anyone else of the Lorax?

[I(rispee_I(reme]

"It's a Truffula Seed.
It's the last one of all!
You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."
-Dr Seuss

At last!

[mister_llah]

Now they can discover the secret to death of old age at age 35!

Yessss!

plant has a sense of humor

[moosesocks]

God, it would seem has a sense of humor.

From TFA:
"The Judean date is chronicled in the Bible, Quran and ancient literature for its diverse powers -- from an aphrodisiac to a contraceptive"

Re:plant has a sense of humor

[idiot900]

An aphrodisiac and a contraceptive? It would seem more like God has a sense of BEING AWESOME.

Extinct species = pure hype?

[RobotWisdom]

How come I can't find any reference on the Web to this supposedly extinct species? Could it be that the discoverers wanted to make a plain old ordinary 2000yo date-pit sound more glamorous?

Uh oh...

[bergeron76]

Perhaps this is the "second coming" !

Will MY code still run 2000 years later?

[Stardate]

I guess if we keep the platform the same... but still, this is why backwards compatibility is a GOOD thing!

There's only one word for this

[QuantumFTL]

Yum!

Oblig I.J. Reference

[fishmasta]

Bad dates.

Re:jurassic park anyone?

[Erbo]

I dunno...we seem to have enough trouble with plants that are current species but that get introduced into new environments. A good example is the giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), which was brought from the Caucasus in Russia into Europe and now infests portions of the U.S., and is pretty nasty stuff. (It was immortalized in a Genesis song from their progressive-rock days, "The Return of the Giant Hogweed.")

Not that this date tree will necessarily be as bad, mind you.

Judean Date Tree ... caw

[rcmiv]

Brian: Are you the Judean Date Tree?

Reg: Fuck off.

Brian: What?

Reg: Judean Date Tree. (scoffs) I'm the Date Tree of Judea. Judean Date Tree, caw.

Francis: Wanker.

Brian: Can I join your group?

Reg: No. Piss off.

-rcmiv

And in a related story

[kenp2002]

Scientists found that the 2000 year old date tree had an enzyme that causes HIV to mutate and become airborne with a 72 hour, open-air survival. Humanity soon to be wiped out because of digging up ancient plants and reviving old things that probably should be left buried in history. THE END IS NEAR!!! ... put the card board sign away sir and back away from the message thread ...