There are a lot of astonishingly long - lived metal money out there , from theGreenland sharkthat can live to around 400 years old , to a clam that could have survive much longer than its 507 years if it wasn’taccidentally killed . Now , scientists have discovered the world ’s oldest know marine plant , and it ’s a whopping 1,400 year old .
Found in the Baltic Sea , the plant in question is a seagrass knockoff of the speciesZostera marina , also known as wild celery . The team used a ground - breaking genic clock to discover the age of the marine plant .
The seagrassclonesproduce ramets , single member of a clone that can separate and become capable of independency . " Vegetative facts of life as an alternative mode of reproduction is far-flung in the animal , fungal , and plant kingdoms , ” explained research leader Dr Thorsten Reusch , Professor of Marine Ecology at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel , in astatement .
transmissible variation within these ramets can be used to get on them . During the development of the main body of the organism , mutations can occur and these can end up becoming fixed and accumulating in the descendent ramets . The clock works by liken the plant that is to be aged and the descendent ramets , and senesce it based on their difference .
The team had admittance to a 17 - year - sure-enough seagrass knockoff that had been kept in a research lab and was used to calibrate the genetic clock for employment on the wild sample distribution . The differences between the two revealed that the knockoff was 1,402 years old , making it the oldest know marineplant . Testing out the new method also identified multiple other dead ringer that were several hundred twelvemonth honest-to-god .
Eelgrass can deal a vast area;Z. marinais a far-flung species regain in the Pacific , the Atlantic , and the Mediterranean . The term eelgrass , however , encompass many other species too , which may also hand impressive ages .
“ We expect that other seagrass coinage and their clon of the genusPosidonia , which offer over more than ten kilometers , will show even higher ages and thus be by far the one-time being on Earth , ” concluded Reusch . " These will be the next target of study , " added fellow study author Dr Benjamin Werner .
The research worker suggest that the clock might also be useful for other species such as raspberries and reed , but also in theconservation of corals .
The paper is publish inNature Ecology & Evolution .
