This Is Type Of Post I Love So Much,

admittedly it began in 1994 when a group of hikers found a group of strange trees growing in a canyon in Wollemi National Park, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) west of Sydney, Australia,

image credits: Dave Watts/Getty Images, and this was what they found, the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), called a "living fossil" by some, the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) is nearly identical to preserved remains dating to the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). There are now just 60 of these trees in the wild — and these tenacious survivors are threatened by bushfires in the region. It was thought to have gone extinct around 2 million years ago, 

but now, scientists from Australia, the United States and Italy have decoded its genome, shedding light on its unique evolution and reproductive habits, as well as aiding conservation efforts among many of the fascinating facts about this plant these stand out, the pine has 26 chromosomes — containing a staggering 12.2 billion base pairs, in comparison, humans have only around 3 billion base pairs, also the remaining trees appear to reproduce mostly by cloning themselves through coppicing — in which suckers emerge from the base and become new trees, "The tiniest plant genome and the largest plant genome have almost the same number of genes. Large differences in size usually come from transposons," Gerald Schoenknecht, program director for the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Program told Live Science, "In 99% of all cases, mutations are probably not a good idea," Schoenknecht said. "But over millions of years, the 1% that helps can move the species forward. In this case it may have been a bit of an advantage." For the full article have a look here, from the article this illustration,

photograph biorxiv.org Podozamites notabilis and Wollemia nobilis. a, Shoot of P. notabilis a 150 million year old fossil relative of Wollemia. b-d, Wollemia nobilis. b, Vegetative shoot. c, Pollen strobilus. d, Ovulate strobilus, and more amazing news, you can actually buy a Wollemi pine for your own back garden!, 

photograph The Plant Tree Company, the company is based in Australia, but offer free shipping to the UK, just think a plant thought to have gone extinct from the Cretaceous period growing in your own home!