Researchers Stumble Upon 390-Million-Year-Old 'Fossil Forest' During Field Work in England
Researchers believe they have found tree fossils from the world's oldest known forest in Southwest England. The remains in question were found by chance and later analyzed by researchers, Live Science reported.
The fossils were of a plant named Cladoxylopsids, which has been declared extinct by experts. According to researchers, these remnants belonged to a 390-million-year-old forest. This claim if true makes the forest the first-known entity of its type in the world. Findings regarding the forest have been published in the Journal of the Geological Society.
Before this finding in 2024, the title of the world's oldest known forest was held by an entity in New York, CNN reported.
Scientists discovered the fossils in high sandstone cliffs on the southern side of the Bristol Channel near Minehead. The trees were found when the researchers were doing some fieldwork in the Hangman Sandstone Formation, Live Science reported. They were in no pursuit of the ancient forest when one of the members randomly spotted the fossils.
After examination the fossils were revealed to be of Cladoxylopsids, Live Science reported. "They look like palm trees, but they're in no way related to palm trees," Neil Davies, the lead author of the new study, explained about the extinct tree. "They've got a long central stem and what look like palm fronds coming off, but those palm fronds aren't really leaves — they're actually just lots of twiglets."
Researchers believe the forests originated in the Devonian Period around 419 million to 358 million years ago, CNN reported. During this time period, life was slowly moving from water bodies to land. The study explained how these trees with their adaptations, were creating a habitat akin to their existence.
These trees were holding sediments in place by their root systems and creating riverbanks and coastlines, CNN reported. "In doing so they are corralling water in certain locations and making these small channels," Davies said. "They’re basically building the environment they want to live in rather than being passive."
The discovery in England is also helping researchers understand how forest development unfolded in two distinct areas, CNN reported. In the U.K. the forest was believed to be sparse with just one type of tree, while in New York, there was more variety in terms of species.
"By comparing the Somerset flora with the New York flora you really see how rapidly things changed in terms of geological time," Davies explained. "Within a kind of geological blink of the eye you’ve got a lot more variety," he added.
The examination of fossils provided evidence of invertebrates that lived on the forest floor during that time, CNN reported. Researchers have yet to uncover what kind of invertebrates were present there, because of a lack of physical remains. All the team has managed to get their hands on is footprints and proof of tail drags possibly belonging to early anthropods.
Researchers were surprised to get their hands on such a crucial discovery in such a nonchalant manner, CNN reported. "We were surprised to find the forest because it’s a part of the world that has been looked at quite extensively and no one’s ever found these things," Davies said.