what was going on Trees 350 million years ago? This is difficult to know because very few complete fossils, including the trunk and crown, have been preserved. In fact, you can count the trees that have survived from very distant times to the present day on the fingers of one hand. Now a new discovery has turned our image of prehistoric trees upside down. Its appearance today would be truly surprising.worthy of a sci-fi or extraterrestrial-looking movie.
Five tree fossils remain buried due to earthquake They were found 350 million years ago, while still alive, in a quarry in New Brunswick, Canada, according to a study published in the scientific journal. Current Biology.
These unusual new fossil trees not only have a surprising shape, but also provide clues to a period of life on Earth that we know little about, the authors say.
“They are time capsules,” said Robert Gastaldo, a paleontologist and sedimentologist who led the study, “they are literally windows into landscapes and ecosystems from time immemorial.”
Co-authors Olivia King and Matthew Stimson uncovered the first of the ancient trees while doing fieldwork at a rock quarry in New Brunswick in 2017. One of the specimens they discovered is one of the few in the entire plant fossil record (spanning more than 400 million years). The branches and leaves at the top of a tree are still attached to its trunk.
According to Gastaldo, very few tree fossils have been found from the Earth’s first forests. “There are only five or six trees we can documentIts crown remains intact, at least from the Paleozoic, says Gastaldo, a professor of geology at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
Most preserved ancient tree specimens are relatively small and are usually discovered in the form of a stump or a fossilized trunk attached to a root system. But in this case, scientists found a preserved tree. When mature, it could have been 4.5 meters tall and had a crown diameter of 5.4 meters. This left the paleontologist, by his own admission, “speechless.”
buried by earthquake
Researchers excavated the first fossil tree about seven years ago, but it took another seven years to find four closely related specimens of the same plant. It was given the name ‘Sanfordiacaulis’. The newly identified species was named in honor of Laurie Sanford, the owner of the quarry where the trees were unearthed.
According to the research, the forms adopted by these 350 million-year-old unknown plants They resemble an existing fern or palm tree, although these tree species were not discovered until 300 million years later.
But although the crowns of ferns or palm trees as we know them have few leaves, the most complete example of the newly discovered fossils is There are more than 250 preserved leaves around its trunk, with each partially preserved leaf reaching approximately 1.7 meters in length.
The fossil was embedded in a sandstone rock and was about the size of a small car, according to Stimson, assistant curator of Geology and Paleontology at the New Brunswick Museum.
The unique fossilization of the group of trees likely resulted from a “catastrophic” landslide caused by the earthquake: “These trees were alive when the earthquake occurred. They sank to the bottom of the lake very quickly, and then the lake reemerged to normalcy,” Stimson explained.
Finding entire fossil trees is rare and rare, according to Peter Wilf, a geology professor and paleobotanist at Pennsylvania State University who was not involved in the research. is much less common than finding a complete dinosaur. According to CNN, Wilf stated in his e-mail that the “unusual” new fossil tree is a relic from a time when almost no tree fossils existed.
A “failed experiment” in tree evolution
The evolution of living things is actually an experimental process. A genre in which species experience both success and failure, and success is often measured by the species’ versatility, or ability to adapt to many different places and conditions. Stimson added that the strange array of tree fossils provides evidence of a “failed experiment in science and evolution.” And this tree design won’t last long before it becomes extinct.
Fossils like Sanfordiacaulis not only help people understand how life changed in the past, they can also help scientists understand where life on our planet might be headed.
Gastaldo sees this as an indication that plants existed, as did the first invertebrates. They were trying to adapt to the environment. The earthquake, which likely caused trees to fossilize, also provides new geological evidence of what may be happening in Earth’s systems.
Reference work: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00011-3
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