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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Largest Single Organism on Earth

 
The largest known organism is not some giant squid or other cephalopod. It's a stand of quaking aspen in Utah known as Pando. What seem to be individual trees are actually just the visible expression of a gigantic underground organism. Every "tree" is connected via the root system. The individual "trees" are genetically identical. (Erroneously referred to as "clones.")

The total size and weight of this organism isn't known with certainty but it's surely more than 6,000,000 kg. The Wikipedia article mentions that Pando is probably the oldest known organism as well, dating back 80,000 years. I'd like to confirm this, if possible. Does anyone know how accurate this date is and whether there is anything older?

Lots of plants are bigger than cephalopods. There are even some mushrooms that are bigger!

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I would have thought some fungi would be competitive, since they can extend for miles underground. But they're probably not as heavy.

Gogarten Lab said...

The costal redwoods should be competitors for the largest and oldest individuals. Most of the time they also propagate clonally through shoots from roots, just like Aspen.

Anonymous said...

What is an organism?

Proposed Definition Of Earth Organism And Of Gene.

http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14988&st=225&#entry345231

An Earth organism: a temporary self-replicable constrained-energy genetic system that supports and maintains Earth's biosphere by maintenance of genes.

Gene: a primal Earth's organism.


Suggesting,

Dov Henis
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have read that there is a genetically identical fungal entity (1 or more indivs.?) that lives in the soil of 4 or 5 COUNTIES --Manistee & others--in NW Michigan. It might be the largest in area, but I'm guessing it lives in a narrow band of depth--almost like a strata.