The world's oldest Baobab tree at Kruger Game Preserve in South Africa. Image: Rachel Sussman
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Antarctica moss, 5,500 years old. Image: Rachel Sussman
100,000-years-old sea grass, Baleric islands, Spain. Image: Rachel Sussman
An underground forest in Pretoria, South Africa, 13,000 years old, now deceased. Image: Rachel Sussman
The now deceased Senator tree, Bald Cypress, 3500-years-old, Florida. Image: Rachel Sussman
Soil sample containing 400,000--600,000 year old Siberian actinobacteria. Image: Rachel Sussman
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2,000- to 7,000-year-old Jomon Sugi in Japan. Image: Rachel Sussman
3000-year-old Llareta, Atacama desert, Chile. Image: Rachel Sussman
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"The underpinning of the project is really deep time and long-term thinking," she went on. "By starting at year 0, it's like saying "wait a minute, this is all so recent, our perspective is so narrow. Let's look really far back."But even year 0 is a problematic starting point."Why is it 2004? Why is it 2014? That's so arbitrary. It's actually the year 4 billion, 500 million, 2014. It's kind of remarkable that we've come to agreement to what year it is, given all the other differences we have on this planet," said Sussman.And yet despite our fleeting presence, humans are having a massive impact on our planet and its ancient survivors.They have lived through any event you can think of in modern history … Shakespeare or the renaissance, or even the invention of the wheel!