A Living Fossil?

Continuing up the east coast to Brisbane. We picked up a botanist in Melbourne and he did a presentation on the Willemi pine tree, one of three known living fossils--a new term to me. It means an organism declared to be extinct that is later found to be alive. Besides the Willemi tree the other two are coelocanths and dawn redwood. A ranger, David Noble, with the Australian forest service in Wollemi National Park ( a remote partially unmapped park) was hiking with friends when he saw a tree he didn't recognize and collected a leaf sample. It was eventually matched with some obscure leaf and pollen fossils. There were only a few trees so the park service kept their location a secret to protect them but of course word got out. Besides developing more stringent protection methods they have also distributed seeds worldwide so people can purchase their own trees and help protect the species from extinction.

Nautical term: Let the cat out of the bag. In the Royal Navy, the punishment prescribed for most serious crimes was flogging. This was administered by the bosun's mate using a whip called "cat o' nine tails." The "cat" was kept in a leather or baize bag and it was considered bad news when the "cat was let out of the bag." Other sources attribute the expression to the old English market scam of selling someone a pig in a poke (or bag) but replacing the pig with a cat instead.Read more