March
10
/ 2024
Remnants of the world’s oldest fossilized forests and trees, dating back 390 million years, have been uncovered along the Devon and Somerset coast among high sandstone cliffs. The trees likely thrived as part of a vast forest that once blanketed the eastern coast of the Old Red Sandstone continent, which was a part of Europe during that era. This makes the Somerset forest as being between four and five million years older than the previous record holder, found in Cairo, New York, in the United States. What can this new discovery tell us? The trees, identified as Calamophyton, bore a striking resemblance to palm trees but boasted thin, hollow trunks. Though they lacked leaves, they featured twig-like structures adorning their
