The living ancient

It's very easy to forget how old things are in the world.

We live in a culture in which the speed of change is breakneck. Evolution of technology happens frighteningly fast. In 2010, Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) stated that "every two days we create as much data as we did up to 2003". Given that was 2010, I wonder how that statistic has changed since then.

Some things, change far slower - classic style, the foundations of religion and of music - all of these things change slowly enough to be tracked back for hundreds of years. They may feel quick at the time, but when you look at them from a distance, it's easy to see the commonality; strip away the new veneers and you're left with the same 4 chords.

The things I'm thinking about today, though, change at a mind-blowingly slow pace. I'm talking about the things that have been around, virtually as they are, for millions of years. There are heaps of examples, my absolute favourite being sharks, but those are well-known (though I will be dedicating a post to their exceptional awesomeness later this week). What I want to talk about are plants. Specific ones. The kind that we (either respectfully or uncharitably, depending on your point of view) call Living Fossils.

Posts upcoming about some of the best and most exciting prehistoric plants around today!