TEDGlobal 2010
Rachel Sussman: The world's oldest living things
Filmed:
Readability: 4.3
1,706,020 views
Rachel Sussman shows photographs of the world's oldest continuously living organisms -- from 2,000-year-old brain coral off Tobago's coast to an "underground forest" in South Africa that has lived since before the dawn of agriculture.
Rachel Sussman - Artist, photographer
Rachel Sussman is on a quest to celebrate the resilience of life by identifying and photographing continuous-living organisms that are 2,000 years or older, all around the world. Full bio
Rachel Sussman is on a quest to celebrate the resilience of life by identifying and photographing continuous-living organisms that are 2,000 years or older, all around the world. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
This strange-looking plant is called the Llareta.
0
1000
3000
00:19
What looks like moss covering rocks
1
4000
2000
00:21
is actually a shrub
2
6000
2000
00:23
comprised of thousands of branches,
3
8000
2000
00:25
each containing clusters of tiny green leaves at the end
4
10000
3000
00:28
and so densely packed together
5
13000
2000
00:30
that you could actually stand on top of it.
6
15000
3000
00:33
This individual lives in the Atacama Desert in Chile,
7
18000
3000
00:36
and it happens to be 3,000 years old.
8
21000
3000
00:39
It also happens to be a relative of parsley.
9
24000
3000
00:42
For the past five years, I've been researching,
10
27000
2000
00:44
working with biologists
11
29000
2000
00:46
and traveling all over the world
12
31000
2000
00:48
to find continuously living organisms
13
33000
2000
00:50
that are 2,000 years old and older.
14
35000
3000
00:53
The project is part art and part science.
15
38000
2000
00:55
There's an environmental component.
16
40000
2000
00:57
And I'm also trying to create a means
17
42000
2000
00:59
in which to step outside our quotidian experience of time
18
44000
3000
01:02
and to start to consider a deeper timescale.
19
47000
3000
01:05
I selected 2,000 years as my minimum age
20
50000
3000
01:08
because I wanted to start at what we consider to be year zero
21
53000
3000
01:11
and work backward from there.
22
56000
2000
01:13
What you're looking at now is a tree called Jomon Sugi,
23
58000
3000
01:16
living on the remote island of Yakushima.
24
61000
3000
01:19
The tree was in part a catalyst for the project.
25
64000
3000
01:22
I'd been traveling in Japan
26
67000
2000
01:24
without an agenda other than to photograph,
27
69000
2000
01:26
and then I heard about this tree
28
71000
2000
01:28
that is 2,180 years old
29
73000
3000
01:31
and knew that I had to go visit it.
30
76000
3000
01:34
It wasn't until later, when I was actually back home in New York
31
79000
3000
01:37
that I got the idea for the project.
32
82000
2000
01:39
So it was the slow churn, if you will.
33
84000
2000
01:41
I think it was my longstanding desire
34
86000
2000
01:43
to bring together my interest
35
88000
2000
01:45
in art, science and philosophy
36
90000
2000
01:47
that allowed me to be ready
37
92000
2000
01:49
when the proverbial light bulb went on.
38
94000
2000
01:51
So I started researching, and to my surprise,
39
96000
2000
01:53
this project had never been done before
40
98000
2000
01:55
in the arts or the sciences.
41
100000
2000
01:57
And -- perhaps naively --
42
102000
2000
01:59
I was surprised to find that there isn't even an area in the sciences
43
104000
3000
02:02
that deals with this idea
44
107000
2000
02:04
of global species longevity.
45
109000
2000
02:06
So what you're looking at here
46
111000
2000
02:08
is the rhizocarpon geographicum, or map lichen,
47
113000
3000
02:11
and this is around 3,000 years old
48
116000
2000
02:13
and lives in Greenland,
49
118000
2000
02:15
which is a long way to go for some lichens.
50
120000
3000
02:18
Visiting Greenland was more like
51
123000
2000
02:20
traveling back in time
52
125000
2000
02:22
than just traveling very far north.
53
127000
2000
02:24
It was very primal and more remote
54
129000
2000
02:26
than anything I'd ever experienced before.
55
131000
3000
02:29
And this is heightened by a couple of particular experiences.
56
134000
3000
02:32
One was when I had been dropped off by boat
57
137000
3000
02:35
on a remote fjord,
58
140000
2000
02:37
only to find that the archeologists I was supposed to meet
59
142000
2000
02:39
were nowhere to be found.
60
144000
2000
02:41
And it's not like you could send them a text or shoot them an e-mail,
61
146000
3000
02:44
so I was literally left to my own devices.
62
149000
3000
02:47
But luckily, it worked out obviously,
63
152000
3000
02:50
but it was a humbling experience
64
155000
2000
02:52
to feel so disconnected.
65
157000
3000
02:55
And then a few days later,
66
160000
2000
02:57
we had the opportunity to go fishing in a glacial stream
67
162000
2000
02:59
near our campsite,
68
164000
2000
03:01
where the fish were so abundant
69
166000
3000
03:04
that you could literally reach into the stream
70
169000
3000
03:07
and grab out a foot-long trout with your bare hands.
71
172000
3000
03:10
It was like visiting
72
175000
2000
03:12
a more innocent time on the planet.
73
177000
3000
03:15
And then, of course, there's the lichens.
74
180000
2000
03:17
These lichens grow only one centimeter
75
182000
2000
03:19
every hundred years.
76
184000
2000
03:21
I think that really puts human lifespans
77
186000
2000
03:23
into a different perspective.
78
188000
2000
03:25
And what you're looking at here
79
190000
2000
03:27
is an aerial photo take over eastern Oregon.
80
192000
2000
03:29
And if the title "Searching for Armillaria Death Rings,"
81
194000
3000
03:32
sounds ominous, it is.
82
197000
3000
03:35
The Armillaria is actually a predatory fungus,
83
200000
3000
03:38
killing certain species of trees in the forest.
84
203000
3000
03:41
It's also more benignly known
85
206000
2000
03:43
as the honey mushroom or the "humongous fungus"
86
208000
3000
03:46
because it happens to be
87
211000
2000
03:48
one of the world's largest organisms as well.
88
213000
2000
03:50
So with the help of some biologists studying the fungus,
89
215000
3000
03:53
I got some maps and some GPS coordinates
90
218000
3000
03:56
and chartered a plane
91
221000
2000
03:58
and started looking for the death rings,
92
223000
3000
04:01
the circular patterns
93
226000
2000
04:03
in which the fungus kills the trees.
94
228000
2000
04:05
So I'm not sure if there are any in this photo,
95
230000
2000
04:07
but I do know the fungus is down there.
96
232000
2000
04:09
And then this back down on the ground
97
234000
2000
04:11
and you can see that the fungus is actually invading this tree.
98
236000
3000
04:14
So that white material that you see
99
239000
2000
04:16
in between the bark and the wood
100
241000
2000
04:18
is the mycelial felt of the fungus,
101
243000
3000
04:21
and what it's doing -- it's actually
102
246000
2000
04:23
slowly strangling the tree to death
103
248000
2000
04:25
by preventing the flow of water and nutrients.
104
250000
3000
04:28
So this strategy has served it pretty well --
105
253000
2000
04:30
it's 2,400 years old.
106
255000
3000
04:33
And then from underground to underwater.
107
258000
3000
04:36
This is a Brain Coral living in Tobago
108
261000
2000
04:38
that's around 2,000 years old.
109
263000
2000
04:40
And I had to overcome my fear of deep water to find this one.
110
265000
3000
04:43
This is at about 60 feet
111
268000
2000
04:45
or 18 meters, depth.
112
270000
2000
04:47
And you'll see, there's some damage to the surface of the coral.
113
272000
3000
04:50
That was actually caused by a school of parrot fish
114
275000
3000
04:53
that had started eating it,
115
278000
2000
04:55
though luckily, they lost interest before killing it.
116
280000
3000
04:58
Luckily still, it seems to be out of harm's way
117
283000
3000
05:01
of the recent oil spill.
118
286000
2000
05:03
But that being said, we just as easily could have lost
119
288000
2000
05:05
one of the oldest living things on the planet,
120
290000
3000
05:08
and the full impact of that disaster
121
293000
2000
05:10
is still yet to be seen.
122
295000
2000
05:12
Now this is something that I think
123
297000
2000
05:14
is one of the most quietly resilient things on the planet.
124
299000
3000
05:17
This is clonal colony
125
302000
2000
05:19
of Quaking Aspen trees, living in Utah,
126
304000
3000
05:22
that is literally 80,000 years old.
127
307000
3000
05:25
What looks like a forest
128
310000
2000
05:27
is actually only one tree.
129
312000
3000
05:30
Imagine that it's one giant root system
130
315000
2000
05:32
and each tree is a stem
131
317000
2000
05:34
coming up from that system.
132
319000
2000
05:36
So what you have is one giant,
133
321000
2000
05:38
interconnected,
134
323000
2000
05:40
genetically identical individual
135
325000
2000
05:42
that's been living for 80,000 years.
136
327000
3000
05:45
It also happens to be male
137
330000
2000
05:47
and, in theory immortal.
138
332000
2000
05:49
(Laughter)
139
334000
3000
05:52
This is a clonal tree as well.
140
337000
2000
05:54
This is the spruce Gran Picea,
141
339000
2000
05:56
which at 9,550 years
142
341000
2000
05:58
is a mere babe in the woods.
143
343000
2000
06:00
The location of this tree
144
345000
2000
06:02
is actually kept secret for its own protection.
145
347000
3000
06:05
I spoke to the biologist who discovered this tree,
146
350000
3000
06:08
and he told me that that spindly growth you see there in the center
147
353000
3000
06:11
is most likely a product of climate change.
148
356000
3000
06:14
As it's gotten warmer on the top of the mountain,
149
359000
3000
06:17
the vegetation zone is actually changing.
150
362000
3000
06:20
So we don't even necessarily have to have
151
365000
2000
06:22
direct contact with these organisms
152
367000
2000
06:24
to have a very real impact on them.
153
369000
3000
06:28
This is the Fortingall Yew --
154
373000
3000
06:31
no, I'm just kidding --
155
376000
2000
06:33
this is the Fortingall Yew.
156
378000
2000
06:35
(Laughter)
157
380000
2000
06:37
But I put that slide in there
158
382000
2000
06:39
because I'm often asked if there are any animals in the project.
159
384000
3000
06:42
And aside from coral,
160
387000
2000
06:44
the answer is no.
161
389000
2000
06:46
Does anybody know how old the oldest tortoise is --
162
391000
3000
06:49
any guesses?
163
394000
2000
06:51
(Audience: 300.)
164
396000
2000
06:53
Rachel Sussman: 300? No, 175
165
398000
2000
06:55
is the oldest living tortoise,
166
400000
2000
06:57
so nowhere near 2,000.
167
402000
3000
07:00
And then, you might have heard
168
405000
2000
07:02
of this giant clam that was discovered
169
407000
2000
07:04
off the coast of northern Iceland
170
409000
2000
07:06
that reached 405 years old.
171
411000
3000
07:09
However, it died in the lab
172
414000
2000
07:11
as they were determining its age.
173
416000
3000
07:14
The most interesting discovery of late, I think
174
419000
2000
07:16
is the so-called immortal jellyfish,
175
421000
3000
07:19
which has actually been observed in the lab
176
424000
2000
07:21
to be able to be able to revert back to the polyp state
177
426000
3000
07:24
after reaching full maturity.
178
429000
2000
07:26
So that being said,
179
431000
3000
07:29
it's highly unlikely that any jellyfish would survive that long in the wild.
180
434000
3000
07:33
And back to the yew here.
181
438000
2000
07:35
So as you can see, it's in a churchyard;
182
440000
2000
07:37
it's in Scotland. It's behind a protective wall.
183
442000
3000
07:40
And there are actually a number or ancient yews
184
445000
2000
07:42
in churchyards around the U.K.,
185
447000
2000
07:44
but if you do the math, you'll remember
186
449000
2000
07:46
it's actually the yew trees that were there first, then the churches.
187
451000
3000
07:51
And now down to another part of the world.
188
456000
2000
07:53
I had the opportunity to travel around the Limpopo Province in South Africa
189
458000
3000
07:56
with an expert in Baobab trees.
190
461000
2000
07:58
And we saw a number of them,
191
463000
2000
08:00
and this is most likely the oldest.
192
465000
2000
08:02
It's around 2,000,
193
467000
2000
08:04
and it's called the Sagole Baobab.
194
469000
2000
08:06
And you know, I think of all of these organisms
195
471000
2000
08:08
as palimpsests.
196
473000
2000
08:10
They contain thousands of years
197
475000
2000
08:12
of their own histories within themselves,
198
477000
2000
08:14
and they also contain records of natural and human events.
199
479000
3000
08:17
And the Baobabs in particular
200
482000
2000
08:19
are a great example of this.
201
484000
2000
08:21
You can see that this one
202
486000
2000
08:23
has names carved into its trunk,
203
488000
2000
08:25
but it also records some natural events.
204
490000
2000
08:27
So the Baobabs, as they get older,
205
492000
2000
08:29
tend to get pulpy in their centers and hollow out.
206
494000
3000
08:32
And this can create
207
497000
2000
08:34
great natural shelters for animals,
208
499000
2000
08:36
but they've also been appropriated
209
501000
2000
08:38
for some rather dubious human uses,
210
503000
2000
08:40
including a bar, a prison
211
505000
3000
08:43
and even a toilet inside of a tree.
212
508000
3000
08:46
And this brings me to another favorite of mine --
213
511000
2000
08:48
I think, because it is just so unusual.
214
513000
3000
08:51
This plant is called the Welwitschia,
215
516000
2000
08:53
and it lives only in parts of coastal Namibia and Angola,
216
518000
3000
08:56
where it's uniquely adapted
217
521000
2000
08:58
to collect moisture from mist coming off the sea.
218
523000
3000
09:01
And what's more, it's actually a tree.
219
526000
3000
09:04
It's a primitive conifer.
220
529000
2000
09:06
You'll notice that it's bearing cones down the center.
221
531000
3000
09:09
And what looks like two big heaps of leaves,
222
534000
3000
09:12
is actually two single leaves
223
537000
2000
09:14
that get shredded up
224
539000
2000
09:16
by the harsh desert conditions over time.
225
541000
2000
09:18
And it actually never sheds those leaves,
226
543000
3000
09:21
so it also bears the distinction
227
546000
2000
09:23
of having the longest leaves
228
548000
2000
09:25
in the plant kingdom.
229
550000
2000
09:27
I spoke to a biologist
230
552000
2000
09:29
at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Capetown
231
554000
2000
09:31
to ask him
232
556000
2000
09:33
where he thought this remarkable plant came from,
233
558000
3000
09:36
and his thought was that
234
561000
2000
09:38
if you travel around Namibia,
235
563000
2000
09:40
you see that there are a number of petrified forests,
236
565000
2000
09:42
and the logs are all --
237
567000
3000
09:45
the logs are all giant coniferous trees,
238
570000
3000
09:48
and yet there's no sign of where they might have come from.
239
573000
3000
09:51
So his thought was that
240
576000
2000
09:53
flooding in the north of Africa
241
578000
2000
09:55
actually brought those coniferous trees down
242
580000
3000
09:58
tens of thousands of years ago,
243
583000
2000
10:00
and what resulted was this remarkable adaptation
244
585000
3000
10:03
to this unique desert environment.
245
588000
2000
10:05
This is what I think is the most poetic of the oldest living things.
246
590000
3000
10:08
This is something called an underground forest.
247
593000
3000
10:11
So, I spoke to a botanist at the Pretoria Botanical Garden,
248
596000
3000
10:14
who explained that certain species of trees
249
599000
3000
10:17
have adapted to this region.
250
602000
3000
10:20
It's bushfelt region,
251
605000
2000
10:22
which is dry and prone to a lot of fires,
252
607000
2000
10:24
as so what these trees have done
253
609000
3000
10:27
is, if you can imagine that this is the crown of the tree,
254
612000
2000
10:29
and that this is ground level,
255
614000
2000
10:31
imagine that the whole thing,
256
616000
2000
10:33
that whole bulk of the tree,
257
618000
2000
10:35
migrated underground,
258
620000
2000
10:37
and you just have those leaves peeping up above the surface.
259
622000
3000
10:40
That way, when a fire roars through,
260
625000
2000
10:42
it's the equivalent of getting your eyebrows singed.
261
627000
3000
10:45
The tree can easily recover.
262
630000
3000
10:48
These also tend to grow clonally,
263
633000
2000
10:50
the oldest of which is 13,000 years old.
264
635000
3000
10:53
Back in the U.S., there's a couple plants of similar age.
265
638000
3000
10:56
This is the clonal Creosote bush,
266
641000
2000
10:58
which is around 12,000 years old.
267
643000
2000
11:00
If you've been in the American West,
268
645000
2000
11:02
you know the Creosote bush is pretty ubiquitous,
269
647000
2000
11:04
but that being said, you see that this has
270
649000
2000
11:06
this unique, circular form.
271
651000
2000
11:08
And what's happening is it's expanding slowly outwards
272
653000
3000
11:11
from that original shape.
273
656000
3000
11:14
And it's one -- again, that interconnected root system,
274
659000
3000
11:17
making it one genetically identical individual.
275
662000
3000
11:20
It also has a friend nearby --
276
665000
3000
11:23
well, I think they're friends.
277
668000
2000
11:25
This is the clonal Mojave yucca, it's about a mile away,
278
670000
3000
11:28
and it's a little bit older than 12,000 years.
279
673000
2000
11:30
And you see it has that similar circular form.
280
675000
3000
11:33
And there's some younger clones
281
678000
2000
11:35
dotting the landscape behind it.
282
680000
2000
11:37
And both of these, the yucca and the Creosote bush,
283
682000
3000
11:40
live on Bureau of Land Management land,
284
685000
3000
11:43
and that's very different from being protected in a national park.
285
688000
3000
11:46
In fact, this land is designated
286
691000
2000
11:48
for recreational all-terrain vehicle use.
287
693000
3000
11:54
So, now I want to show what very well might be
288
699000
3000
11:57
the oldest living thing on the planet.
289
702000
2000
11:59
This is Siberian Actinobacteria,
290
704000
2000
12:01
which is between 400,000
291
706000
3000
12:04
and 600,000 years old.
292
709000
3000
12:07
This bacteria was discovered several years ago
293
712000
2000
12:09
by a team of planetary biologists
294
714000
2000
12:11
hoping to find clues to life on other planets
295
716000
3000
12:14
by looking at one of the harshest conditions on ours.
296
719000
3000
12:17
And what they found, by doing research into the permafrost,
297
722000
3000
12:20
was this bacteria.
298
725000
2000
12:22
But what's unique about it is that
299
727000
2000
12:24
it's doing DNA repair below freezing.
300
729000
2000
12:26
And what that means is that it's not dormant --
301
731000
3000
12:29
it's actually been living and growing
302
734000
2000
12:31
for half a million years.
303
736000
3000
12:34
It's also probably one the most vulnerable
304
739000
3000
12:37
of the oldest living things,
305
742000
2000
12:39
because if the permafrost melts,
306
744000
2000
12:41
it won't survive.
307
746000
2000
12:43
This is a map that I've put together of the oldest living things,
308
748000
2000
12:45
so you can get a sense of where they are; you see they're all over the world.
309
750000
3000
12:48
The blue flags represent things that I've already photographed,
310
753000
3000
12:51
and the reds are places that I'm still trying to get to.
311
756000
3000
12:54
You'll see also, there's a flag on Antarctica.
312
759000
3000
12:57
I'm trying to travel there
313
762000
2000
12:59
to find 5,000 year-old moss,
314
764000
3000
13:02
which lives on the Antarctic Peninsula.
315
767000
3000
13:05
So, I probably have about two more years left
316
770000
2000
13:07
on this project --
317
772000
2000
13:09
on this phase of the project,
318
774000
2000
13:11
but after five years,
319
776000
2000
13:13
I really feel like I know what's at the heart of this work.
320
778000
3000
13:16
The oldest living things in the world
321
781000
2000
13:18
are a record and celebration of our past,
322
783000
3000
13:21
a call to action in the present
323
786000
3000
13:24
and a barometer of our future.
324
789000
2000
13:26
They've survived for millennia
325
791000
2000
13:28
in desert, in the permafrost,
326
793000
2000
13:30
at the tops of mountains and at the bottom of the ocean.
327
795000
3000
13:33
They've withstood
328
798000
2000
13:35
untold natural perils and human encroachments,
329
800000
3000
13:38
but now some of them are in jeopardy,
330
803000
2000
13:40
and they can't just get up and get out of the way.
331
805000
3000
13:43
It's my hope that, by going to find these organisms,
332
808000
2000
13:45
that I can help draw attention
333
810000
2000
13:47
to their remarkable resilience
334
812000
2000
13:49
and help play a part in insuring
335
814000
2000
13:51
their continued longevity into the foreseeable future.
336
816000
3000
13:54
Thank you.
337
819000
2000
13:56
(Applause)
338
821000
5000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rachel Sussman - Artist, photographerRachel Sussman is on a quest to celebrate the resilience of life by identifying and photographing continuous-living organisms that are 2,000 years or older, all around the world.
Why you should listen
For the past five years, Rachel Sussman has traveled around the globe photographing organisms that have lived for more than 2,000 years. From 500,000-year-old actinobacteria in the Siberian permafrost a lone spruce standing on a mostly barren mountain in Sweden, her images capture both the robustness and fragility of life. While these organisms' longevity dwarfs even that of human civilization, they all depend on ecosystems in fine balance -- a balance thrown into question by human encroachment and climate change.
Sussman's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe in venues including the Museum of Natural History.
Rachel Sussman | Speaker | TED.com