Everyone’s made some decisions that they later regret – going crazy with the hair dye, microwaving an egg , finding out how have snails have sex … But what about inadvertently chopping down what would later turn out to be the oldest tree ever dated? The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

That’s exactly what happened to an unfortunate graduate student named Donald R. Currey back in the summer of 1964, who ended up responsible for the demise of Prometheus, a bristlecone pine that stood in what is now Great Basin National Park, Nevada.

Bristlecone pines are some of the hardiest trees out there; they’re slow growing, with dense wood keeping them resistant to the effects of weather, insects, and fungi, and have a characterist

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