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The oldest ecosystems on Earth
- Sporktacular 2y agoAccording to this the Daintree Rainforest is older than the Amazon, but no mention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest
- timoth3y 2y agoThat was an enjoyable read, but the oldest ecosystems on Earth by far are the deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Many remain pristine and are quite possibly the origin of life on Earth.
- dredmorbius 2y agoWhilst agreed generally with the principle, there's ... a slight fly in that ointment: the seafloor is largely geologically young. The oldest seafloor is actually in one of the smaller seas: the Mediterranean, a relic of the earlier Tethys Sea, and is about 280 million years old. Most seafloors are only ~100--200m years old if that, and some basins (e.g, the Atlantic) only began to form ~170--200 mya. I'd agree that the ecological niche of deep-sea hydrothermal vents is quite possibly the oldest of any, and may have originated life on Earth, there are no particularly old extant deep-sea vents. By contrast there are continental strata which are many billions of years old. Some extant landforms, such as the Appalachian Mountains, are older than terrestrial life.