It’s funny to think that the world’s earliest forest is simply a two hour drive from the busy streets of New york city City. The forest was discovered at the bottom of a quarry, in Cairo, New york city, near to the Catskill Mountain range.
Scientists have understood this ancient forest for a long time now, but its particular age was a mystery till just recently.
Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist from Cardiff University, explained the experience to the BBC: “You are walking through the roots of ancient trees. Standing on the quarry surface we can reconstruct the living forest around us in our imagination.”
It is thought to be older than the Amazon Rainforest. Back in prehistoric times, the comprehensive website would have spread across New York all the method to Pennsylvania.
This video shows the fossil forest website, which consists of some 385-million-year-old tree root systems.
Paleobotanists from Cardiff University in Wales, U.K, and University of Binghamton in New York, have actually performed research study studying the trees and fossils in the area to determine the age of the forest, because 2009. Prior to this discovery, they were also investigating another ancient forest in Gilboa, New York City, about 25 miles away. It is thought that the Cairo forest is 2– 3 million years older than this site.
Image by Mali Mae One of the crucial discoveries is the presence of Archaeopteris, an ancient types of tree. It has big wood roots and leafy branches.
These ancient trees reproduce by spreading spores like fungis instead of launching seeds that turn into trees. Evidence of these trees, as well as some ferns, were a huge idea into the age of the forest, which is now thought about to be the world’s oldest.
The world’s oldest forest is in Upstate New York City. Discover more about the current discovery with evidence that go back 385 million years.