The oldest living tree ever found was a pine named “Prometheus.” It had been alive since before the Egyptian pyramids were built. Some guy cut it down in 1964. Source
he was actually a forestry graduate student who was doing research on bristlecone pines (Pinus langaevea) and got his increment borer stuck in the tree. this tool costs almost $800, so he asked the forest service if he could cut down the tree to recover the tool. after cutting it down, it became apparent that the tree was actually the oldest living organism. ever. (around 8,000 years old). so, not just some asshole. the guy feels extremely guilty and has even broken down in tears during an interview about the accident
OH MY GOD SO LET ME TELL YOU A STORY
So after the grad student cut down the tree and discovered it was the oldest tree in the world he quit studying forestry and went to study salt flats (can’t cut down the oldest trees in the world on salt flats no siree none of that happening) and he was being interviewed about his research, but in the middle of the interview the reporter just stops and says “wait aren’t the guy that…”
And he just takes off running. Literally. Turns around and runs across the salt flats away from the interview and I feel so bad for him but I can’t help but start crying I’m laughing so hard about it
imagine a guy high tailing it across salt flats away from a dude with a recorderi own an aesthetic blog, and i don’t usually comment on reblogs, but:
- the “grad student”, dr. donald rusk currey, died in 2004. so he is not, as someone said in the comments, “still receiving death threats to this day”.
- prometheus was the oldest non-clonal organism known at the time. many many many floral organisms of equal and older ages (upwards of 10 kya) have been found since 1964. so not “oldest living organism ever”.
- though it wasn’t known at the time, methuselah (sampled in 1957) was later found to be at least 10 years older than prometheus.
- prometheus’ innermost, extant rings have been dated to 4862 years. not 8000. (the only source given doesn’t even say 8000. where did this person get 8000?)
- currey became a professor of geography in 1970. he was an extremely respected scholar in his field with an annual field trip and a scholarship in his name. he helped the area prometheus belonged to become the protected great basin national park. yes, it was controversial at the time (again: 1964. we’re talking about 5 years before man landed on the moon), but it did not sink his career, and it did not become the only thing he was known for.
- i barely know anything about dendrochronology and yet i was able to find all this information in about 10 minutes. don’t believe everything you see on tumblr.com.
Turns out we don’t need to apologize to him, cause he’s dead! Rest in peace…