Scientists have revived a mysterious, 1,000-year-old seed discovered in the Judean Desert — and the tree that has grown from it could belong to a lost lineage mentioned in the Bible, they say.
It has taken researchers almost 14 years to grow a tree from the ancient seed, which archaeologists excavated from a cave in the late 1980s. Dubbed "Sheba," the cryptic specimen now stands around 10 feet (3 meters) tall, meaning scientists can finally describe its fully-fledged characteristics. They were also able to perform DNA, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the tree, revealing new clues about its origins, according to a study published Sept. 10 in the journal Communications Biology.
