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The Oldest Living Things In The World (2014)

by Rachel Sussman(Favorite Author)

4.35 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

022605750X (ISBN13: 9780226057507)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

University Of Chicago Press

review 1: Photographer, Rachel Sussman travels to all seven continents to capture and witness the oldest living things. Each of the oldest living individuals (whether they are unitary organisms for clonal colonies) have been alive for 2,000 years or more. The oldest living thing in North America? An 80,000 year old clonal colony of Pando (or quaking aspen) in Utah. Oldest composite organism? Map Lichen of Greenland which grow one centimeter every hundred years. (Lichens are a symbiotric amalgam of a fungus w/either a green algae or cyanobacteia). South America's oldest living things include the eerie green, Llareta (3000 years old) and the equally mysterious Brain Coral (2000 years old). Posidonia Sea Grass are the oldest living thing in Europe clocking in at 100,000+ years. ... moreThe oldest living thing in the book is the Siberian Actinobacteria at 400,000-600,000. Africa's oldest living thing are the underground forests which can live up to 13,000 years. Australia: Tasmanian Lomatia: 43,600 and 5,500 year old moss in Antarctica. Many stunning and interesting trees grace these pages: Giant Sequoia 2000+, Bristlecone Pine 5000+, the Chestnut of 100 Horses 3000 years, Olive Trees 3000+, Sugi 2000-7000, and my favorite: the Baobab of Africa 2000+. Myths abound about the baobabs, that they used to uproot themselves and walk around or that they had angered the gods and were planted upside down...
review 2: I bought this book for my dad for his birthday, half as a joke about his age and half because it sounded awesome.I loved looking at the photos and reading about Sussman's project. In looking at these old organisms and learning about how they're being killed off, this book was a great reminder about how climate change is affecting the global ecosystem. More powerful than anything else I've read / listened to on that topic.I definitely recommend this book. less

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