One of the green forests in southern Chile may be home to the oldest tree in the world after a new study found that the ancient cypress tree known as "the great-grandfather" could be more than 5,000 years old.

Scientists were unable to determine an exact age based on tree rings due to the massive trunk of the tree. Usually, a one-meter-long (1.09 yards) wood core is extracted to count the tree rings, but the great-grandfather's trunk measures 4 meters in diameter.

Jonathan Barichivich, the scientist who led the study, said the sample they extracted and other dating methods indicate the tree's age could be up to 5,484 years.

Barichivich said, "This method tells us that 80% of all possible growth paths give us an age for this living tree of more than 5,000 years." "There is only a 20% chance that the tree is younger."

The estimated age would surpass the current record holder, a bristlecone pine tree aged 4,853 years in California, by more than half a millennium.

Barichivich said, "If we compare it to already dated trees where we count all the rings, it would make it one of the oldest living trees on this planet."

While it has survived many eras of human civilization, Barichivich is concerned about the tree's location in Alerce Costero National Park.

He said visitors often leave the observation platform, trample on the tree roots, and even take pieces of its bark. For this reason, there are similar trees in the United States whose locations are hidden to prevent damage to them. Barichivich hopes that people can "think for a moment about what it means to live 5,000 years."