The oldest seed ever germinated is 2000 years old and has been nicknamed "Methuselah" by its discoverers. Was part of a group of seeds of date palm that in the sixties of the twentieth century had been found during excavations at Masada, the ancient Israeli fortress that stood on a plateau near the Dead Sea, Judea in the south-eastern Europe. The seed, planted in January 2005, had begun to sprout after eight weeks. Six months after the seedling had reached a height of 120 cm. Initially, the length of the seed had been established on the basis of the archaeological context of discovery, but now Sarah Sallon of the Hadassah Medical Organization and Markus He, University of Zurich report in an article published in "Science", which radioisotope analysis other two seeds of that group and fragments of shell seme Matusalemme risulta che il seme avrebbe effettivamente 2000 anni, con un intervallo di incertezza di 50 anni. Le analisi genetiche effettuate hanno, inoltre, rivelato che questa antica palma da dattero è profondamente diversa dalle specie moderne. Se la palma si rivelerà essere un esemplare femmina si potrà pensare a un recupero di questa antico tipo di palma.
0 comments:
Post a Comment