Scientists have found the oldest tree on our planet, which is a witness to events of at least the last 5,000 years.
The discovery was called the great-grandfather of all coniferous trees. We are talking about a giant cypress growing in South America.
Scientists named the cypress Great Grandfather because the tree is over 5,000 years old.
As it turns out, it was discovered in Chile in 1972, but they only began to study it in 2020.
At the moment, scientists say with confidence that the discovered Patagonian cypress is the largest tree in South America.
The trunk diameter exceeds 4 meters, and the height is 28 meters.
Analysis of the outer part of the tree showed that the age of the samples studied is about 2400 years.
Research into the roots and materials obtained from the tree's core is still ongoing.
But already now scientists say with 80% probability that the age of the cypress exceeds 5000 years.
That is, the sprout appeared around the time when humanity was just mastering the science of writing on papyrus.
If the data is confirmed, the Methuselah pine's record of 4,850 years old will be broken.
Earlier we talked about which cat breeds are considered the smartest .
