Oldest living thing on earth is no longer the 43,000 year-old Tasmanian plant.

[oldest living thing photo credit: Alberto Romeo]

Australian scientists have discovered that the oldest living thing or living organism in the planet is the giant patches of seagrass found in the Mediterranean sea which is believed to be 200,000-year-old.

In a report by the Huffington Post, scientists was able to determine the age of the oldest living thing by a process called “DNA sequencing,” or ascertaining 40 different sites over a 2,000 mile range from Cyprus to Spain.

Scientifically named Posidonia oceanica or commonly known as Mediterranean tapeweed or Neptune Grass, the patches of seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old beating the current holder of the title “oldest living thing,” which is the Tasmanian plant.

The separate patches of seagrass in the Mediterranean span almost 10 miles and weigh more than 6,000 tons.