As Many Species Fall, One May Return from the Dead

Israeli researchers confirmed that a seed found at King Herod’s fortress of Masada and coaxed into a sapling is 2,000 years old, making the resuscitated tree the sole living member of a long-extinct species, the Judean date palm. Since many ancient seeds fail to germinate, the researchers had not been sure the seed — named Methuselah after the oldest person in the Bible — was as old as those found around it, which have been carbon-dated to about 2,000 years ago. But when the sapling grew, they collected fragments of the seed casing and ascertained its true age. Thick forests of Judean date palms once covered the Middle East, and the fruits of the tree were said to have medicinal properties. If the tree is female, it may be crossbred to produce fruit with viable seeds, leading to the possible re-establishment of the species. The tree is expected to reach fruiting age in approximately two years.