50,000-year-old Plant Found

Fossils of ancient animals are relatively abundant. But finding old plants is another matter.

At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union earlier this month, Ohio State University geologist Lonnie Thompson announced his discovery of a remarkably well-preserved plant that is at least 50,000 years old.

Thompson has made nearly annual pilgrimages to Peru's Quelccaya ice cap to monitor its slow demise, likely a victim of recent global climate change, he says. The glacier is retreating 40 times faster now than it was when the first aerial photographs were taken in 1963.

The plant had to have remained covered and protected for most of that time, which means that the ice cap most likely has not deteriorated to its current size for any length of time in more than 50,000 years.

That suggests that the global climate change he and others blame for the shrinkage also was less during that long period.

"The latest find is just one in a series pointing to the continued loss of mountain glaciers, Thompson said.

The plant could be older. Reliable dating methods can't show plant material to be any older than 50,000 years, so Thompson has put that conservative lower limit on his discovery. Lab work continues.

-- LiveScience Staff

Image credit: Ohio State/Lonnie Thompson