Graduate student destroyed the world's oldest tree: the shocking story of the 1964 mistake.

According to ТСН: In the USA, a tree that existed for about 5,000 years was destroyed due to an experiment by a young scientist.

In 1964, a graduate student accidentally cut down a pine tree named "Prometheus" that was growing on Wheeler Peak in Nevada. This amazing tree, which had survived for millennia, became a victim of research, the importance of which was understood only after it was too late.

"We may never know the true story of what happened," said officials at Great Basin National Park, commenting on possible versions of the events that led Kerry to such a decision.

According to one version, the young scientist wanted to retrieve his drill, which got stuck during core sampling, while another aimed to obtain a sample of the tree to analyze its growth rings. Despite this, he received permission from the Forest Service to cut it down.

After cutting down the tree, Kerry returned to his room, where he began counting the rings on the cut using a magnifying glass. What he learned about the age of the tree shocked him:

"I knew it was quite an old tree," Kerry later admitted in an interview. But when he counted the rings, the shocking result was astounding: the pine was almost 5,000 years old. This discovery was both stunning and tragic.

Pines in the Great Basin region are known for their slow growth, allowing them to survive in harsh conditions, while their small size can conceal their age. Kerry recalls:

"We started to see that we had an age of over 4,000 years, over 4,500, over 4,600, which was already the oldest recorded in literature at that time. But we stopped at around 4,900 years…"

Despite attempts to double-check the data, the tree's age remained the only inaccurate number: the pine was indeed about 4,900 years old, and at that time it was the oldest known tree, but it was already destroyed.

Although the loss of this giant was sad, Kerry's research inspired further searches that uncovered even older trees in other regions that remain unexplored, particularly in the White Mountains of California.

Recently, scientists also found some of the oldest evidence of life on Earth, underscoring the importance of continuing research in this field.