The discovery of the world’s oldest fossilized forest in South West England, dating back 390 million years, provides crucial insights into the early forms of tree life and their impact on Earth’s landscapes during the Devonian Period. This groundbreaking research emphasizes the significant role of early trees in stabilizing environments and shaping the evolution of river systems. A forest of Calamophyton trees.
The fossils were found near Minehead, on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, near what is now a Butlin’s holiday camp. The fossilized trees, known as, at first glance, resemble palm trees, but they were a ‘prototype’ of the kinds of trees we are familiar with today. Rather than solid wood, their trunks were thin and hollow in the center. They also lacked leaves, and their branches were covered in hundreds of twig-like structures.
The fieldwork was undertaken along the highest sea cliffs in England, some of which are only accessible by boat, and revealed that this sandstone formation is in fact rich with plant fossil material from the Devonian period. The researchers identified fossilized plants and plant debris, fossilized tree logs, traces of roots, and sedimentary structures, preserved within the sandstone.
This period marked the first time that tightly-packed plants were able to grow on land, and the sheer abundance of debris shed by thetrees built up within layers of sediment. The sediment affected the way that the rivers flowed across the landscape, the first time that the course of rivers could be affected in this way.
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