Extinct palm trees from 2k years ago revived by scientists by planting seed

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Forests of Judean date palm trees once covered ancient Israel, from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea. The fruit of the tree symbolised life and prosperity and was praised in ancient literature for its unique medicinal properties. But the dates of Judea were made extinct by the Middle Ages.

Now a team of scientists has succeeded in resurrecting the ancient tree. “It’s quite remarkable this team of researchers managed to germinate seeds of that age,” says Oscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar, who studies ancient dates at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The fact that the team has done it not just once but now seven times suggests that ancient seeds could be used to resurrect genes that disappeared after thousands of years of breeding. “These ancient seeds might represent lost genetic diversity we don’t see any more,” Pérez-Escobar says. As date-palm growers adapt to climate change and battle pests and diseases, they might want to tap into the pool of ancient genes hidden in archaeological archives.

Source - https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09m0v4x/extinct-tree-from-the-time-of-jesus-rises-from-the-dead, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/how-to-grow-a-date-tree-from-2000-year-old-seeds/606079/, https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p09m0v4x/extinct-tree-from-the-time-of-jesus-rises-from-the-dead

[Adrenaliner 3,809]

Ahh I love science

[Eido 3,681]

Make a forest again yeaaaah

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On the topic of 'de-extinction' 

 

[Chic 20,830]

That is mega cool, our distant past fascinates me deeply!

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9 hours ago, Chic said:

That is mega cool, our distant past fascinates me deeply!

Historically 2k years ago is still relatively recent. I would say that the distant past starts beyond 10k years ago.. but yeah this is in the end subjective.  

[Economy 52,861]

Why did they go extinct?

 

Ive read before that before the industrial revoution and before humans had the massive impact.on environment weve had the last 150 years... only something like 1 species was estimated to go extinct every 4 years (tho im sure that estimate has a huge margin for error)

 

So extinctions dont appear to jave been super common in the last few thousand years when earth has been super stable

 

So i wonder what caused it. Was it human activity still?

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22 hours ago, Economy said:

Why did they go extinct?

 

Ive read before that before the industrial revoution and before humans had the massive impact.on environment weve had the last 150 years... only something like 1 species was estimated to go extinct every 4 years (tho im sure that estimate has a huge margin for error)

 

So extinctions dont appear to jave been super common in the last few thousand years when earth has been super stable

 

So i wonder what caused it. Was it human activity still?

Wikipedia says the cause is ''a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay''.

[Economy 52,861]

11 minutes ago, FfFfFfFF said:

Wikipedia says the cause is ''a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay''.

Infrastructure??? Like human infrastructure near where they existed?

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11 hours ago, Economy said:

Infrastructure??? Like human infrastructure near where they existed?

I have no idea... This species of palm tree wasn't a wild variety but cultivated.. maybe a decline in road quality meant a decline in the spread of the seeds and this contributed to the plant being extinct.

[Economy 52,861]

13 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

I have no idea... This species of palm tree wasn't a wild variety but cultivated.. maybe a decline in road quality meant a decline in the spread of the seeds and this contributed to the plant being extinct.

Oh so like cross bred to create this particular species?

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10 hours ago, Economy said:

Oh so like cross bred to create this particular species?

I don't think necessarily a cross of two species, just a man-made variety. 

About its extinction, it seems that the infrastructure part meant the fruits of the tree couldn't be exported across the region, so the tree found a decline in cultivation. The climate became colder as time went on so the species went extinct. 

[Economy 52,861]

6 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

I don't think necessarily a cross of two species, just a man-made variety. 

About its extinction, it seems that the infrastructure part meant the fruits of the tree couldn't be exported across the region, so the tree found a decline in cultivation. The climate became colder as time went on so the species went extinct. 

They couldnt genetically alter anything back then so cross breading is the only method I know of to produce a new species. How would they have made this?

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14 minutes ago, Economy said:

They couldnt genetically alter anything back then so cross breading is the only method I know of to produce a new species. How would they have made this?

Cultivating only a lineage of plants can lead overtime to the creation of a new species. Especially if they have a desirable quality like bigger fruits, people don't want to keep them as pure as possible.

[pachinko 10,755]

I love planting seeds too!