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'Dinosaur trees': firefighters save endangered Wollemi pines from NSW bushfires
The Guardian ^ | Wed 15 Jan 2020 08.55 GMT | Adam Morton

Posted on 01/16/2020 3:35:24 PM PST by Candor7

Firefighters have saved the only known natural stand of Wollemi pines, so-called “dinosaur trees” that fossil records show existed up to 200m years ago, from the bushfires that have devastated New South Wales.

The state’s environment minister, Matt Kean, said a specially deployed team of remote area firefighters helped save the critically endangered trees from the giant Gospers Mountain fire.

The pines are in an undisclosed sandstone grove in the Wollemi national park, in the Blue Mountains, about 200km north-west of Sydney. They were thought extinct until discovered 26 years ago..............................

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancient; australia; godsgravesglyphs; localnews; paleontology; saved; wildfire; wollemia; wollemipine
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This tree species of pine is 2,500,000 million years old, and survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.
1 posted on 01/16/2020 3:35:24 PM PST by Candor7
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To: Fred Nerks

These pines, a species that is ,2500,000 years old from the time if the dinosaurs, have made it through the brush fire conflagration.


2 posted on 01/16/2020 3:37:12 PM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obam_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Candor7

Awesome.


3 posted on 01/16/2020 3:38:15 PM PST by Amberdawn (Want To Honor Our Troops? Then Be A Citizen Worth Fighting For.)
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To: Candor7

Its a remnant of the Gondwanan forests that once covered much of Australia.

They still exist in abundance on Tasmania.


4 posted on 01/16/2020 3:38:21 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Candor7

I would love to see those trees in person - I can’t imagine it. I was amazed to see Joshua Trees - the individual trees can be thousands of years old, I’m not sure how old the species is. But careless or crazy people would endanger those Australian trees if it was common knowledge where to find them.


5 posted on 01/16/2020 4:00:47 PM PST by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: Wilhelm Tell

photos ?


6 posted on 01/16/2020 4:02:38 PM PST by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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To: Candor7

The Blue Mountains are beautiful!!


7 posted on 01/16/2020 4:05:52 PM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

https://www.twenty20.com/photos/6dc61b4c-6ee7-4950-ab01-f9236096fde9


8 posted on 01/16/2020 4:17:34 PM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obam_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Candor7

Gosh, that’s pretty


9 posted on 01/16/2020 4:22:44 PM PST by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust! Hi)
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To: Candor7
Vanishing Acts: Wollemi Pine
The Wollemi Pine
10 posted on 01/16/2020 4:36:42 PM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: Candor7

From the piece:”...existed up to 200m years ago...” So, which is it? 2.5 million or 200 million? Asking for a friend who want to build a log cabin out of them. :-)


11 posted on 01/16/2020 4:39:07 PM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: Candor7

You mean someone was around to date them then?


12 posted on 01/16/2020 4:43:32 PM PST by Fungi
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To: Candor7

Perhaps the karma of this species is about exhausted.
It would appear to be a hardy survivor though.


13 posted on 01/16/2020 4:46:55 PM PST by TigersEye (MAGA - 16 more years! - KAG)
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To: George from New England
Dave's Site


14 posted on 01/16/2020 4:50:16 PM PST by RedMonqey
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To: Robert DeLong

Was presumed extinct and known only from fossil records dating to the late Cretaceous.

Then it was rediscovered 26 years ago by accident in a remote region of the Australian state of New South Wales.

Like the coelacanth, its a true living fossil.


15 posted on 01/16/2020 4:52:38 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Candor7

Excellent. We have alligator junipers here that are easliy 1000 years old, and I hate it when fire gets them.


16 posted on 01/16/2020 4:52:56 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Robert DeLong

Looks a lot like the metasequoia, which are native to one valley in China. My grandfather, in the nursery business, got a seedling somewhere before the communists took over in 1949 and grew it to a 60 footer in Maryland. It’s still there.


17 posted on 01/16/2020 4:55:17 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Robert DeLong
They are growing all over the place, and I wonder if the seeds survive fires.

A propagation programme made Wollemi pine specimens available to botanical gardens, first in Australia in 2006 and subsequently throughout the world. It may prove to be a valuable tree for ornament, either planted in open ground or for tubs and planters. In Australia, potted native Wollemi pines have been promoted as a Christmas tree.[17] It is also proving to be more adaptable and cold-hardy than its restricted temperate-subtropical, humid distribution would suggest, tolerating temperatures between −5 and 45 °C (23 and 113 °F), with reports, from Japan and the USA, that it can survive down to −12 °C (10 °F). A grove of Wollemi pines planted in Inverewe Garden, Scotland, believed to be the most northerly location of any successful planting, have survived temperatures of −7 °C (19 °F), recorded in January 2010.[18] It also handles both full sun and full shade. Like many other Australian trees, Wollemia is susceptible to the pathogenic water mould Phytophthora cinnamomi, so this may limit its potential as a timber tree.[19]

18 posted on 01/16/2020 5:05:07 PM PST by Moonman62 (Charity comes from wealth.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Metasequoia is the genus, the name of the tree you’re referring to is the Dawn Redwood, discovered 1941, and planted in many public gardens and parks.

All those really old tree types have those unusual “swirling” branches that actually look prehistoric.


19 posted on 01/16/2020 5:25:31 PM PST by canuck_conservative
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To: Wilhelm Tell
A few years ago we went to see a tree in Central Florida (can't recall exactly where) that was about 3,000 years old. But it was killed a few years back by a junkie who lit it on fire. IIRC there was another tree a few feet away...still living...that was about 2,500 years old.

Fascinating stuff.

20 posted on 01/16/2020 5:40:15 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election)
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