It’s possible that another tree could steal the crown from Methuselah - possibly before it turns 4,848. But it does usually have certain markers that can tip off researchers to its old age: smooth bark, thick branches or a spiked top where the tree has died in places. There is no way to know a tree’s age just by looking at it, Dr. In the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, the part of Inyo National Forest where Methuselah lives (that’s as specific as the forest service will get), there are many ancient trees. But dendrochronologists - people who study the ages of trees - have examined at least tens of thousands of trees around the world since then, and none have been confirmed to be as senior as Methuselah. Of course, it’s not possible to say that any given tree is definitely the oldest tree on Earth because not all trees have been analyzed in this way. Edmund Schulman, a scientist with the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, calculated its age in 1957. Methuselah was nearly 4,790 by the time anyone realized just how exceptional it was. Only after the tree had been felled and he counted its rings did he realize that he had just slain the oldest known tree on Earth, which was then a wizened 4,900 years old. Members of the forest service said he got his drill bit stuck in the tree, and he and the foresters cut it down to remove his tool. Currey, said in a PBS documentary that the normal approach to coring a tree was not working, so he cut it down with the help of some foresters. There are a few accounts of what happened. The former oldest tree, Prometheus, was cut down in 1964 in Great Basin National Park in Nevada by a graduate student researching the effects of climate change on receding glaciers by measuring their influence on the size of the rings of ancient pine trees.

Bristlecone pine