'Living dinosaurs': Wollemia nobilis pine trees set to tower over Edinburgh in bid to save them from extinction – Scotsman comment

It had been thought the Wollemia nobilis tree had gone extinct 70 million years ago, until a botanist abseiled into a remote gorge in Australia

They are “living dinosaurs” that can grow to more than 12 metres (39 feet) in height and, what’s more, they will soon be among us! But, fear not, for while the distant ancestors of six mighty Wollemia nobilis recently sent from Australia to Scotland lived at a time when the Tyrannosaurus rex was king, they are harmless pine trees and not anything conjured up by real-life Jurassic Park scientists gone rogue.

However, they are very much in danger of becoming as extinct as their late dinosaur neighbours. In fact, it had been thought, based on fossil records, that they had died out at least 70 million years ago, until a botanist abseiled into a gorge in Wollemi National Park, Australia, and made an astonishing discovery – the last surviving population – in the 1990s. With fewer than 100 trees, they remain in real danger, but scientists now hope to save the species by planting them at different locations around the world, including Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden.

Walking with dinosaurs? Not quite, but we will be able to walk around them.