90 Million Year Old Tree Makes A Good Christmas Tree
The Wollemi Pine, once thought to be long extinct has made a bit of a come back since it was discovered a few years back in 1994. What made me want to blog about this was when I noticed an advertisement in the local newspaper here on the Central Coast, NSW. You can buy one for use as a Christmas tree - and a fine Christmas tree it would make.
This is what is called a “living fossil.” It was rediscovered in 1994 just 200km west of downtown Sydney, Australia in a rainforest gorge within the 500,000 hectare Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains is a popular sight-seeing park for tourists who usually come to look at the Three Sisters. The oldest fossil of the Wollemi Pine is believed to be 90 million years old, as shown below, placing it in the mid-Cretaceous period. On the evolutionary timeline, Wollemi Pine trees and dinosaurs lived together. On the biblical creationist timeline, Wollemi Pine trees and dinosaurs also lived together.
Only a handful of Wollemi Pine were found in the wild but now conservationist clubs have been encouraging more Aussies to buy and plant them at home to encourage their survival - which of course is a good move.
However, the startling thing about the Wollemi Pine, and all the other living fossils, is that it hasn’t changed in all that time. Its a curious thing that a tree which has apparently been around for 90 million years hasn’t changed - even significantly. I suppose one would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps 90 million years haven’t elapsed as evolutionary natural historians would suggest - more like around 4500 years since water from Noah’s flood receded, carving out the Blue Mountains’ topography. Later as forests began to grow back from water-bourne vegatation the Wollemi also grew and has survived the relatively short period until now. You can read more about the Wollemi Pine here. See more pictures of this ancient living fossil when you scroll down the rest of this post.
