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African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab

The article reports the radiocarbon investigation results of the Lebombo Eco Trail tree, a representative African baobab from Mozambique. Several wood samples collected from the large inner cavity and from the outer part of the tree were investigated by AMS radiocarbon dating. According to dating re...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Patrut, Adrian, Woodborne, Stephan, von Reden, Karl F., Hall, Grant, Hofmeyr, Michele, Lowy, Daniel A., Patrut, Roxana T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25621989
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117193
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author Patrut, Adrian
Woodborne, Stephan
von Reden, Karl F.
Hall, Grant
Hofmeyr, Michele
Lowy, Daniel A.
Patrut, Roxana T.
author_facet Patrut, Adrian
Woodborne, Stephan
von Reden, Karl F.
Hall, Grant
Hofmeyr, Michele
Lowy, Daniel A.
Patrut, Roxana T.
author_sort Patrut, Adrian
collection PubMed
description The article reports the radiocarbon investigation results of the Lebombo Eco Trail tree, a representative African baobab from Mozambique. Several wood samples collected from the large inner cavity and from the outer part of the tree were investigated by AMS radiocarbon dating. According to dating results, the age values of all samples increase from the sampling point with the distance into the wood. For samples collected from the cavity walls, the increase of age values with the distance into the wood (up to a point of maximum age) represents a major anomaly. The only realistic explanation for this anomaly is that such inner cavities are, in fact, natural empty spaces between several fused stems disposed in a ring-shaped structure. We named them false cavities. Several important differences between normal cavities and false cavities are presented. Eventually, we dated other African baobabs with false inner cavities. We found that this new architecture enables baobabs to reach large sizes and old ages. The radiocarbon date of the oldest sample was 1425 ± 24 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated age of 1355 ± 15 yr. The dating results also show that the Lebombo baobab consists of five fused stems, with ages between 900 and 1400 years; these five stems build the complete ring. The ring and the false cavity closed 800–900 years ago. The results also indicate that the stems stopped growing toward the false cavity over the past 500 years.
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spelling pubmed-43065392015-01-30 African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab Patrut, Adrian Woodborne, Stephan von Reden, Karl F. Hall, Grant Hofmeyr, Michele Lowy, Daniel A. Patrut, Roxana T. PLoS One Research Article The article reports the radiocarbon investigation results of the Lebombo Eco Trail tree, a representative African baobab from Mozambique. Several wood samples collected from the large inner cavity and from the outer part of the tree were investigated by AMS radiocarbon dating. According to dating results, the age values of all samples increase from the sampling point with the distance into the wood. For samples collected from the cavity walls, the increase of age values with the distance into the wood (up to a point of maximum age) represents a major anomaly. The only realistic explanation for this anomaly is that such inner cavities are, in fact, natural empty spaces between several fused stems disposed in a ring-shaped structure. We named them false cavities. Several important differences between normal cavities and false cavities are presented. Eventually, we dated other African baobabs with false inner cavities. We found that this new architecture enables baobabs to reach large sizes and old ages. The radiocarbon date of the oldest sample was 1425 ± 24 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated age of 1355 ± 15 yr. The dating results also show that the Lebombo baobab consists of five fused stems, with ages between 900 and 1400 years; these five stems build the complete ring. The ring and the false cavity closed 800–900 years ago. The results also indicate that the stems stopped growing toward the false cavity over the past 500 years. Public Library of Science 2015-01-26 /pmc/articles/PMC4306539/ /pubmed/25621989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117193 Text en © 2015 Patrut et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Patrut, Adrian
Woodborne, Stephan
von Reden, Karl F.
Hall, Grant
Hofmeyr, Michele
Lowy, Daniel A.
Patrut, Roxana T.
African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab
title African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab
title_full African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab
title_fullStr African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab
title_full_unstemmed African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab
title_short African Baobabs with False Inner Cavities: The Radiocarbon Investigation of the Lebombo Eco Trail Baobab
title_sort african baobabs with false inner cavities: the radiocarbon investigation of the lebombo eco trail baobab
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25621989
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117193
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