
The World’s Oldest Forest Has 385M-Year-Old Tree Roots - sohkamyung
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/385-million-year-old-fossils-reveal-worlds-oldest-forest-had-modern-tree-roots-180973810/
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hinkley
Fossilized, 385M year old tree roots.

Which is very cool, but not nearly as bizarre/profound as the headline
suggests. Phrasing.

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jacobkg
I agree, I was also disappointed.

Meanwhile the oldest known living tree is a still astonishing 4,800 years old

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_(tree)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_\(tree\))

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TACIXAT
When I went there I asked a ranger if there was something special about
bristlecone pines that allows them to live for so long. She first told me what
it means for a tree to be alive. Apparently, as long as there is a connection
from root, through bark, to leaves, it's still alive. So a lot of bark could
be missing, but if there is a path it's good.

For the longevity, it's just the perfect environment in the White Mountains.
Trees don't die of old age. Pests, disease, and erosion are what kill them.
That area, being California high desert, there just aren't really any pests or
disease. Erosion and weather are the biggest threat to the trees.

That place is totally cool, in that I really like it but don't think anyone
I'd drag up there would enjoy it as much, ha.

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randycupertino
If you like Bristlecone Pines, I highly, highly recommend checking out Great
Basin National Park and hiking up to the Bristlecone Pine Grove. It's a lovely
day hike - I did it over Thanksgiving weekend and used those little snowtrax
grippers over my hiking shoes.

[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-bristlecone-pines-
of...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-bristlecone-pines-of-the-great-
basin-baker-nevada)

Could be done around now-ish in snowshoes as well.

One of the least visited and most beautiful national parks in the US!
Sparkling stars and dark skies make for great meteor viewing, and the
bristlecone pine trail has a loop through all the interesting trees with
little signs and "biographies" about each tree.

One of the largest is Prometheus:
[https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/historyculture/the-
prometheus...](https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/historyculture/the-prometheus-
story.htm)

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skunkworker
Cool article, but the headline should read "385M-Year-Old Fossilized Tree
Roots"

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ncmncm
This really implies that the same tree-root architecure evolved independently
in different lineages of plants.

