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In today`s world you will find it hard to come across examples of living fossils. Living fossil is a term used by scientists which means living animals and plants that are largely unaltered from the fossilised remains of their predecessors. A few examples that are still in evidence are those of the crocodile and alligator that have been around allegedly for 200 million years. There is however something that even beats the crocodile and alligator, and that comes in the form of a species of tree called the Ginko Biloba, which has survived for 270 million years. If that`s not amazing itself, it may not have existed on the earth for 1000`s of years if it wasn`t for human intervention. European scientists had the notion that like the rest of the Ginko family, the Ginko Biloba was also extinct. However all this was to change when Englebert Kaempfer, a German scientist and explorer travelled to Japan in 1691. On his expedition he would often visit Buddhist monasteries, and here in the gardens he would discover Ginko trees which were cultivated for their medicinal properties. In 1693 Englebert Kaempfer left Japan to return back to Europe and graciously donated a number of seeds from the Ginko trees to the botanical gardens in Utrecht. One key factor that the Ginko tree has, that has undoubtedly helped it through time is that it has a high resistance to diseases, and because of that it has been claimed that some trees have lived for over 2,500 years. The Ginko is not known in most parts of the world and more-so in the wild. Nevertheless it has recently been found growing in the wild in Zhejiang, a province in China, but it is now believed that they were planted there due to limited diversity in the Zhejiang population. The inability of such a hardy tree to survive without human help seems all the more bizarre when you discover that there are four Ginko trees growing in Hiroshima, that survived the atom bomb, despite being less than two kilometres from the blast centre. One of the main factors that has allowed the Ginko tree to be successful is that it is used widely in Chinese medicine. The future also looks promisingfor the Ginko tree as there are now claims that it helps with the central nervous system, with studies being undertaken to asses its usefulness for Alzheimer`s sufferers.
Article Source: http://www.articlebase.info
Lucy is a journalist writing for Goldshield Healthcare.
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