4200 Year Old Coral Discovered off Hawaii
Scientists from Texas A&M College of Geosciences just announced the discovery of a species of coral that has been carbon dated and found to be over 42 centuries old!
This would make the species, Leiopathes, among the oldest continuously living organisms on the planet, rivaling the nearly 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine trees growing in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
The coral bed was discovered at a depth of about 1200 feet in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. It was previously thought the coral beds were no more than a few hundred years old.