The 390-million-year-old fossilized forest represents a period when marine life on Earth was diversifying and the first four-legged amphibians made their way onto land.
Neil Davies / University of CambridgeRipple marks left on the floor of this prehistorical woodland .
Researchers in the United Kingdom of late made a shocking discovery : a prehistoric fossil wood dating back 390 million years , making it the oldest known forest in the world .
Their findings , published in theJournal of the Geological Society , break that this prehistorical forest belong to a geologic menses live as the Devonian menses , which occurred between 419 million and 358 million years ago .
Neil Davies / University of CambridgeRipple marks left on the floor of this prehistoric forest.
What Did These Ancient Trees Look Like?
The tree remain were found in the Hangman Sandstone Formation near Minehead , England , along the Devon and west Somerset coasts . There , research worker identified various plant debris , logs , and roots preserve within the sandstone .
The fossilised trees would have looked somewhat like palms , but with thin trunks and hollow centers .
“ This was a reasonably eldritch forest — not like any timberland you would see today , ” Professor Neil Davies of Cambridge University ’s Department of Earth Sciences say ina press affirmation . “ There was n’t any underwood to speak of and weed had n’t yet seem , but there were lots of branchlet drop by these densely packed trees , which had a adult force on the landscape painting . ”
Neil Davies / University of CambridgeThe sandstone cliffs in southwestern England where the discovery was made.
Neil Davies / University of CambridgeThe sandstone cliffs in southwest England where the discovery was made .
The research squad was composed of researchers from both Cambridge and Cardiff University , who identified these prehistoric plants asCalamophyton , saying they were something like “ prototypes ” of innovative trees .
“ The Devonian period basically commute living on Earth , ” Sir Humphrey Davy say . “ It also changed how pee and land interacted with each other , since trees and other plants helped brace sediment through their root systems , but slight is know about the very earliest woodland . ”
Wikimedia CommonsMarine life during the Devonian period.
Life In The Devonian Period
The Devonian period is also sometimes refer to as the “ Age of Fishes , ” as there were a routine of diverse and oftentimes strange puppet swimming throughout Earth ’s seas during this time . Famously , this was the menstruum that saw the emergence of curlicue - shelled ammonoid .
Toward the end of the Devonian period , the first four - legged amphibians appear — the first sign of vertebrate life move onto land .
Wikimedia CommonsMarine life during the Devonian catamenia .
Neil Davies / University of CambridgeThe fossilized, palm-like trees known asCalamophyton.
At the time , North America , Greenland , and Europe were a single land mass occupying the Northern Hemisphere as a supercontinent called Laurussia or Euramerica . The overall mood , globally , was thought to be comparatively warm , with little evidence of ice caps .
While marine animals and oceans incorporate most of Earth ’s life , the Devonian period grade a major change for life history on Earth — and marked the first appearance of seed - bearing plants .
Early Plant Life On Earth
Previously , the oldest forest on Earth was trust to be in an abandoned pit near Cairo , New York .
At the time , Cardiff ’s Dr. Christopher Berry , who was also involve in the new study , toldScience , “ The Cairo situation is very special . ”
That site give ossified tree roots that go steady back 385 million years . But the newly discovered fossil at Minehead are even older .
“ When I first saw pictures of the tree diagram trunks , I right away knew what they were , base on 30 years of studying this eccentric of tree worldwide , ” Dr. Berry said of the new discovery . “ It was amazing to see them so near to home . But the most revealing insight hail from seeing , for the first time , these tree diagram in the positions where they grew . ”
Neil Davies / University of CambridgeThe fossilized , palm - like trees get laid asCalamophyton .
During the Devonian period , this website would have been a semi - arid plain with small river channels from nearby mountains crisscrossing the landscape . Rather than the leafage - plentiful timberland of today , this prehistoric timberland would have more closely resemble a sedimentary desert of sort .
It was also the first time river were impacted by the buildup of deposit that result from theCalamophytontrees shedding debris , spay the way they hang across the bumpy landscape painting .
“ The evidence check in these fogy preserves a central stage in Earth ’s developing , when river commence to operate in a essentially different way of life than they had before , becoming the with child mordant force they are today , ” Sir Humphrey Davy suppose .
“ the great unwashed sometimes think that British rocks have been looked at enough , but this shows that revisiting them can return important new discoveries . ”
After reading about the discovery of the world ’s oldest fossilized forest , explorenine of the globe ’s oldest structuresand the stories behind them . Then , meetÖtzi the Iceman , the oldest preserve human being .
