Fascinating information, MFI. Thanks for gathering and sharing it.
My small brain is also struggling with the “oldest living tree” question, but I think I lean towards a different conclusion than you.
If I understand correctly, the belief that clonal descendants represent the same individual as the “parent”, is based on the assumption that identical genotypes indicate the same individual. I'm not sold on that assumption. First, there are relatively few identical genotypes, due to mutation. For example, it is believed that in humans the mutation rate is such that there would be an estimated 30 nucleotide mutations per gamete. So even the genotype of the same individual human changes over the lifetime.
Second, what about identical twins? The position that identical genotypes equals the same individual means that clearly separate identical twins must be the same single individual.
My small brain is also struggling with the “oldest living tree” question, but I think I lean towards a different conclusion than you.
If I understand correctly, the belief that clonal descendants represent the same individual as the “parent”, is based on the assumption that identical genotypes indicate the same individual. I'm not sold on that assumption. First, there are relatively few identical genotypes, due to mutation. For example, it is believed that in humans the mutation rate is such that there would be an estimated 30 nucleotide mutations per gamete. So even the genotype of the same individual human changes over the lifetime.
Second, what about identical twins? The position that identical genotypes equals the same individual means that clearly separate identical twins must be the same single individual.
Don't blame me - I didn't vote for him!
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