Are redwoods older than dinosaurs?

The earliest redwoods showed up on Earth shortly after the dinosaurs – before flowers, birds, spiders… and, of course, humans. Redwoods have been around for about 240 million years 2, and in California for at least 20 million years, compared to about 200,000 years for “modern” humans 3.



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Many specimens have a verified age over 2,000 years and some of the oldest-known redwoods are over 3,000 years old. Redwoods are considered the second oldest trees after bristlecone pines, which are 5,000 years old.

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There is evidence that coast redwoods have existed as far back as 65 million years ago. This was the end of the Cretaceous period, the last time that dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Velociraptor roamed the earth.

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With an average lifespan of 500-700 years, coast redwoods can live to more than 2,000 years and grow to over 360 feet in height. Their great longevity is not why redwoods are called sequoia sempervirens, or sequoia ever-living.

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In a way, all three species of redwood in existence today are living fossils. They date to the Jurassic period, when redwoods dominated Northern Hemisphere forests. Apart from China's dawn redwood, only the coast redwood and its cousin, the giant sequoia, survive—both in California.

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There is evidence of Tyrannosaurus rex activity near redwoods as well. No animals have been seen feeding on these trees yet, and the trees are likely too large to be significantly damaged by any other than the very largest dinosaurs.

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Oldest Trees in the World Methuselah is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (pinus longaeva) that is currently, as of this writing, a mind-bending 4,854 years old. Its exact location is kept secret for its safety, but it lies somewhere among the aptly named Methuselah Grove in the White Mountains of eastern California.

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Over the hundreds or thousands of years that a redwood may live, even moderate growth adds up. The evolutionary driver of bigness in redwoods may be the advantage in being good at survival. Or it may be simply be that being taller means better access to sunlight in the dark forest.

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The tree trunks are ancient clones, or genetically identical copies of that parent tree. Modern coastal redwoods also reproduce by stump sprouting. If a redwood is toppled or burned, a ring of new trees often sprouts from burls around the trunk's base.

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A typical redwood lives for 500 to 700 years, although some have been documented at more than 2,000 years old, meaning that some of the coast redwoods living today were alive during the time of the Roman Empire. Not only that, but coast redwoods have been on the planet for more than 240 million years.

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THE QUESTION is often asked, Why do the Sequoias live so long? The answer is probably to be found in the fact that, whether dead or alive, they are remarkably resistant to the natural enemies of the forest. In general, there are three important enemies of dead or living mature trees: namely, insects, fungi, and fire.

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