Why haven’t Madagascar’s baobabs gone extinct?

T HE MALAGASY baobab tree, whose thick trunks and tiny branches dot Madagascar’s landscape, should not, by rights, have survived to the present day. Scientists believe that its large seeds were once dispersed by the giant tortoises and gorilla-size giant lemurs that roamed the island. When these species went extinct over one thousand years ago due to human activity, the baobab tree should have vanished too. It did not. Seheno Andriantsaralaza at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar and Onja Razafindratsima at the University of California, Berkeley, now think they may know the reason why.

It would have collapsed 450m years ago

Tricks from the oil industry have produced a hot-rocks breakthrough

It would be 1,000 times more accurate than today’s atomic timekeepers

They may one day replicate its benefits

Some of its myriad components are being tested as treatments for cancer and other diseases

All it takes is very long radio waves

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/09/18/why-havent-madagascars-baobabs-gone-extinct

A source: www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/09/18/why-havent-madagascars-baobabs-gone-extinct