A spectacular discovery in the Baltic Sea. It is the oldest sea plant
A unique seaweed forest was discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It turns out that it is the oldest sea plant whose age has been precisely determined.
The seaweed discovered by the team of scientists is 1,400 years old.
The genetic clock made it possible to determine the age of plants
As it turns out, it is the oldest marine plant whose age has been precisely determined – writes a team led by Thorsten Reusch from the Geomar Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.
Seagrass reproduces mainly through underground stolons. The individual parts differ slightly genetically. The team from Kiel, London, Oldenburg and California used this fact to develop a new type of genetic clock that can accurately determine the age of a plant.
Mutations in genetic information are key here.
The Australian seagrass carpet is at least 4,500 years old
According to mopo.de, other researchers had previously discovered huge seaweed forests, whose age – several thousand years – they estimated based on their size.
Off the west coast of Australia, the seagrass carpet stretches for 180 kilometers and is estimated to be at least 4,500 years old, a team led by Elizabeth Sinclair from the University of Western Australia reported in 2022. Specifically, it is a plant from the seagrass species, Posidonia australis.
