Australia's dinosaur-era pines live on after bushfire rescue

An aerial view of Wollemi National Park after a specialist team of remote-area firefighters and parks staff sprayed fire retardant to protect the endangered Wollemi Pines from bushfire damage at Wollemi National Park, New South Wales, Australia mid-January 2020. NSW NPWS/Handout via REUTERS

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Wollemi Pines survived the dinosaurs, and now firefighters have nursed them through the country's worst bushfires in generations to live another day.

The giant prehistoric trees were thought to be extinct until 1994, when authorities found 200 of them in a national park near the Blue Mountains north-west of Sydney.