Re: Dinosaur Toe Found on S. Pacific Island

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:02:28 -0700 (PDT), bucketfoot-al wrote
> ...more intriguing was the discovery some
> years ago, in a remote New Zealand valley

A-hem! Try Australia...

>, of a small
> grove of a species of primitive dinosaur-era pines
> (related to Araucaria, I believe - male and female
> trees like the Araucaria have) thought to be extinct
> for 65 million years...my understanding is that the
> location has been kept secret and that the scientists
> involved are busy propagating cuttings so as to be able
> to eventually spread the trees and assure their
> survival...

Wollemi 'pines' are now commercially available (and expensive). Many of them 
were grown from collected seeds as well as cuttings. The most amazing thing 
about them is that every tree appears to be genetically identicle, perhaps 
suggesting that at one stage they were reduced to just one tree which then 
reproduced by self-coppicing. A fungus that grows nowhere else but on the 
leaves of this tree may prove to have anti-cancer properties.

If you want to see one, here's a list of public places that have them:

-Australia-

Royal Botanic Gardens (Sydney, NSW) 
Mount Annan Botanic Gardens (south-west Sydney, NSW) 
Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens (Blue Mountains, NSW) 
Taronga Park Zoo (Sydney, NSW) 
Botanic Gardens (Adelaide and Mt Lofty, SA) 
Australian National Botanic Garden (Canberra, ACT) 
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden (Hobart, TAS) 
Kings Park and Botanic Garden (Perth, WA) 
Southbank Parklands (Brisbane, QLD) 

-Other countries-

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (London, UK) 
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (Scotland) 
Royal Botanic Gardens Glasnevin (Dublin, Ireland) 
Belgium National Botanic Gardens (Brussels, Belgium) 
Hortus Botanicus (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) 
Vienna Botanic Gardens (Vienna, Austria) 
Frankfurt Pamengarten (Frankfurt, Germany) 
Disneyland Tokyo (Japan) 
Taiwan National Museum (Taipei, Taiwan) 

http://www.wollemipine.com/

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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://heretichides.soffiles.com
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
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