Scientists uncover the world's oldest fossil forest in New York

[G_j]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inverse.com/amp/article/61875-oldest-forest-discovered-cairo-new-york

In a quarry in Cairo, near the Catskill Mountains, researchers uncovered the earliest fossil forest to date. The fossils date back 386 million years, to the Devonian geologic period — a few million years older than the previous record holders, discovered a few years earlier in the same region.

The discovery is detailed in a paper published this week in the journal Current Biology.

The fossil forest reveals that at least two fern-like tree species previously lived in the area, cladoxylopsids and archaeopteris. But a single, unidentifiable specimen suggests there was another, third kind of tree in this forest. Possibly a lycopod, a type of giant mossy plant, the researchers suggest.



The team found extensive networks of roots — some more than 35 feet in length — with complex features, like different levels and sizes of branching. The root systems are surprisingly akin to those of modern forests, and may have been part of a bigger evolutionary transformation, the researchers suggest.

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[smirkymonkey]

1. Very cool.

Thanks for posting!