Move over, Big Ben—there’s a new giant in town! A pint-sized fern from New Caledonia, a remote Pacific island, now holds three Guinness World Records for packing the largest genome of any living organism. Meet Tmesipteris oblanceolata, a fork fern so small you might miss it, but its DNA is taller than the iconic London clock tower!
Scientists found that if you unraveled this fern’s DNA, it’d stretch over 100 meters—enough to dwarf most buildings. Meanwhile, human DNA? Just a humble 2 meters, like your bedroom door.
This unassuming plant’s cells contain 50 times more DNA than ours, proving big things really do come in small packages.
The discovery sparks questions: Why does this fern need so much genetic material? How does it even function? Researchers like co-author Ilia Leitch are diving into the science, calling it a ‘biological mystery.’
One thing’s clear: Nature’s full of surprises, and this fern just rewrote the rulebook!
Reference(s):
Record-breaking tiny fern has largest genome of any organism on Earth
cgtn.com