Oldest living thing on earch could be a seagrass

By Ash Ruparell

DNA of samples of the giant seagrass, Posidonia oceanic, was sequenced by Australian scientist Carlos Duarte of the University of Western Australia in Perth. Samples were taken from 40 sites, a patch of 15 km were of coastline was found to be identical. The seagrass grows underwater in an area spanning more than 2,000 miles, from Spain to Cyprus.

The seagrass is believed to be between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This makes the seagrass much older than the current known oldest species, a Tasmanian plant that is thought to be just over 43,000 years old.

Posidonia oceanica  like all seagrasses reproduces by cloning and this is the reason that it is thought to reach such old age. The cloning means it is genetically identical and is also why it is considered one organism.

The analysis was published in the journal PLos ONE.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21433-patch-of-seagrass-is-worlds-oldest-living-organism.html

Ash Ruparell