The 3 Reasons This Tree Has Lived 5000 Years

Methuselah’s environment lacks nutrients, water, and oxygen. In other words, it’s the perfect place to grow very very old.

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Great basin bristlecone pine tree: a species of pine tree that includes many of the longest-lived individual trees on Earth.
- Bark beetles: the common name for a subfamily of beetles that has destroyed millions of acres of forest across the Western United States.
- Terpenes: waxy chemicals that increase wood density in certain pine trees.
- Bark morphology: a trait of certain bristlecones in which strips of exposed wood extend up and down the tree, allowing them to pass nutrients even when other parts of the trunk have died.
- Dolomite: a type of rock high in magnesium and calcium that turns into extremely alkaline soils.
- Extremophile: an organism that is tolerant to environmental extremes.

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CREDITS
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David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Lizah van der Aart | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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REFERENCES
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[AndyHappyGuy]

There was another Bristlecone called Prometheus which was actually older than Methuselah by about half a century. Unfortunately, they only discovered that after they cut down and killed Prometheus when one of the scientists couldn’t get a core sample from it.

[KnightSlasher]

Can't imagine the life the tree has had staying alive for so long it has seen alot, hopefully it continues to last long

[TheaSvendsen]

Another thing to factor in is that it’s been spared from invasive species such as European earth worms, as they turn the soil into a more nutrient one. If the tree is perfectly adapted to a certain environment, then any disruption to that environment could be disastrous. If I recall correctly, this happened to the American redwood trees some place.

[Kahadi]

This is probably more for the animals with long lifespans, but wouldn't harsher conditions also reduce the number of threats to their existence, namely larger predators? Even for plants and trees it means fewer animals to feast on leaves and such, right?

[Xidnaf]

Loved this video! I think I noticed a tiny little error at 0:43? Wouldn't .15in be .4cm, not .04?

[geisaune]

There are small pockets of bristlecone pines in high altitude mountains all over the western US. I saw some when I went to Great Basin National Park. Even if I hadn't already known that they live thousands of years, just from the way they look I would've been able to tell that they were very old. It was fascinating looking at a whole grove of them and thinking about how many of them are older than Ancient Rome and some of them are as old as the Ancient Egyptians.

[NewMoonStarlight]

at 0:41, when the video notes the growth rate of the bristlecone pine, it should say 0.4 cm/yr rather than 0.04 cm/yr. Excellent video, I have often wondered why all the most exceptional age statistics come from extreme environments.

[TheDarkRizon]

Biology of Ageing is a very interesting topic. Did you know that there is a field of science studying this called biogerontology? It mainly researches the mechanisms of human ageing, age-related diseases and treatments that may be able to intervene in the process.
The research is important as many untreatable disease such as cancer, Alzheimer, strokes etc. become more likely with age.
If you would like to know more, the book 'Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old' by Dr Andrew Steele gives a good overview on what human ageing is and what research is going on.

[blablup]

I thought the oldest living thing in the world would be a sponge, because there was a kind of sponge that was estimated to be 10.000 years old....

Wiki says :
"Glass sponges found in the East China Sea and Southern Ocean have been estimated to be more than 10, 000 years old. Although this may be an overestimate, it is likely that this is the longest lived animal on Earth."

[ontoya]

I was just literally just talking about the Greenland sharks like a couple of hours ago and for something that niche and random to come up randomly in the elusive Minute Earth's new video thumbnail is kind of eerie not gonna lie lol

[BurrritoYT]

"We must cut the oldest tree to see how old it is" - Someone 2022

[AnonymousReject]

So, only some sections of the 5000 year old bristlecone are alive?

[dashiellgillingham]

I thought that tree looked familiar. I saw that tree once, from a distance. The conditions defeated me before I could make it. My nose started bleeding in the dry air and literally did not stop bleeding until I descended the mountain.

[rohaniyer]

Spotted an error: 0:44 0.15 in is 0.4 cm, not 0.04 cm.

[ThewOrldIssqUare]

2:40 "And here's something else that's extremely cool: we have made our own
✨️MOLECULES✨️"
(how my brain first parsed this)

[alonsosepulvedavega]

its interesting how different species adapt to their specific habitats, and overall to see that almost all plants that are able to hit 1k in their counter are conifers. they truly show how earth wouldve been a millenia ago. and just to stir the pot, the title to oldest tree is being contested by el gran abuelo, a patagonian cypress growing in alerce costero national park. one might think this place is also barren, but in fact is a temperate rainforest, one of the most productive ecosystems in chile, with a climate similar to redwood national forest in the us. vivan los árboles 🌱

[juancamilomaderoacero]

Very cool video, in my country there is a plant called Espeletia (Frailejon in Spanish) that also lives many years and grows in dificult conditions. So there is another example to show how good the research you guys do is.

[alcyone]

Never thought one day I'll be rooting for a tree I didn't even know the name of! Great video mate.

[decidingodin]

Original title: how suffering leads to longer life
The oldest living guy on earth: DAMIT Another Year!

[experience]

2:35 if gilgamesh heard this he will rise from the grave.