Study Shows Ancient Moss Cloned itself for 50,000 Years
Moss on the Hawaiin Islands is regarded as among the oldest multicellular organisms in the world.
The peat moss propagates by creating duplicates of itself which means that the existing crop originated from exactly the same founder plant that arrived at Hawaii hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It’s believed that human activity including its use as a packing material might have aided the moss spread throughout the islands in recent times. “The peat moss has had explosive growth where it was introduced, especially on Oahu,” said study co-author Eric Karlin.
A moss spreading throughout the Hawaiian Islands (map) appears to be an ancient clone that has copied itself for some 50,000 years—and may be one of the oldest multicellular organisms on Earth, a new study suggests.
The peat moss Sphagnum palustre is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but the moss living in Hawaii appears to reproduce only through cloning, without the need for sex or production of spores.
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/12/111230-cloning-sex-moss-hawaii-oldest-science/