Ancient Moss That Outlived the Dinosaurs Is Threatened By Climate Change! | Weather.com - The Weather Channel

Ancient Moss That Outlived the Dinosaurs Is Threatened By Climate Change! | Weather.com

Some 400 million years ago, the Takakia, a group of fuzzy green moss evolved into existence. Not only did it see the dinosaurs come and go, this moss even survived the violent birth of the Himalayas some 50 million years ago, when India — an island at the time — slammed into Asia and raised the mountains out of the ground.

Its life since then has been filled with strife as well, as it continued to grow amid the icy and harsh environs of the isolated cliffs of the Tibetan plateau. But it looks like the ancient plant might have finally met its match: climate change.

Broadly classified as a bryophyte, the Takakia is a rare moss that can sometimes be mistaken for a layer of green algae from a distance. Its two species, T. ceratophylla and T. lepidozioides, can be found together only in Tibet. Apart from the Himalayas, the moss is also known to thrive in certain parts of Japan and the United States.

This plant has always been of interest to scientists owing to its ability to tolerate frost, life-threatening UV radiation and other extreme conditions. And to analyse this ‘living fossil’, researchers went on 18 expeditions between 2010 and 2021 to decode how Takakia had adapted to survive for millions of years in its home, situated 13,123 feet above the ground.

As the team dug deeper and deeper into Takakia’s history, they found something extraordinary. Despite not changing much of its appearance over the generations, the moss possessed the highest number of fast-evolving genes in its genome.

While this explained how the hardy moss had managed to dodge all the curveballs life had thrown at it, scientists realised something more alarming during the course of their study.

In order to track larger changes in the moss’ environment, they studied the plants with the help of time-lapse cameras and satellite weather data. As the local temperature average rose each year, the Takakia moss’s population decreased by 1.6% annually.

In just a few years, the habitat of this mighty species has been greatly altered by climate change — at a pace even its rapidly evolving genes can’t keep up with.

Over the last decade, the moss has become harder to find, researchers reported. They think Takakia faces extinction and is unlikely to survive even the next 100 years, nevermind the millions of years of evolution and resilience.

Predictions show that suitable conditions and regions for Takakia will shrink to only around 1,000-1,500 square kilometres all over the world at the end of the 21st century, one of the study’s authors said.

Researchers aim to multiply some plants in the laboratory and then transplant them to our experimental sites in Tibet.

Meanwhile, the team hopes that this study will serve as a wake-up call about the climate crisis.

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