We all know the oldest living person on earth is Susannah Mushatt Jones, who is 116 years old, and that the oldest living animal is a tortoise named Jonathan, which has been living for 183 years now. But it’s not just these oldies who deserve a certificate for having lived that long. There’s someone—or something rather—from Europe that wants to snatch a record too. But it’s not a person nor an animal—it’s a tree.
The world’s oldest tree can be found in Sweden. It’s a Norwegian Spruce named Old Tjikko, and it is 9,500 years old.
This tree was discovered in 2004 by Leif Kullman, a professor of physical geography at Umea University. The age of the tree was determined through carbon dating.
Professor Kullman said that during the ice age, the sea level was 120 meters lower than it was today and what is now the North Sea used to be a forest.
The winds and low temperature made Old Tjikko like a bonsai tree. Big trees are unable to live as long as Old Tjikko.