Scientists have discovered the world's oldest forest—in NY!

[Opti]

Scientists have discovered the world's oldest forest—and its radical impact on life

Fossil roots helped suck up carbon from atmosphere, fundamentally changing the climate

www.science.org/content/article/scientists-have-discovered-world-s-oldest-forest-and-its-radical-impact-life

Qs for posters -
Will this make NYers even more insufferable having the oldest known forest on the planet?
Did you read about this earlier?
Is this cool or what?



Scientists have discovered the world's oldest forest in an abandoned quarry near Cairo, New York. The 385-million-year-old rocks contain the fossilized woody roots of dozens of ancient trees. The find marks a turning point in Earth's history. When trees evolved these roots, they helped pull carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and lock it away, radically shifting the planet's climate and leading to the atmosphere we know today.



"The Cairo site is very special," says team member Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. The quarry floor, about half the size of a U.S. football field, represents a horizontal slice through the soil just below the surface of the ancient forest. "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees," Berry says. "Standing on the quarry surface we can reconstruct the living forest around us in our imagination."