390 Million-Year-Old Fossilized Forest in England is the Oldest Ever Discovered

A recent study published in the Journal of the Geological Society revealed a surprising find: fossilized trees discovered in southwest England are now considered Earth’s earliest-known forest. These ancient trees, dating back 390 million years, surpass the previously recognized oldest forest located in New York, which is 386 million years old.

Neil Davies, the lead researcher of the study, pointed out that this new discovery sheds light on the evolution of forests. It suggests that within a relatively short span of a few million years, forests progressed from being rather primitive to becoming well-established ecosystems.

Dominated by just one type of plant

This is important because it checks the box of being the oldest fossil forest, explained Davies, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

This discovery is noteworthy not only because it is the oldest but also because it uncovers distinct differences between the ancient plants at Gilboa and those in the newly discovered forest.

Moreover, the newly found forest seems to have been dominated by just one type of plant unlike the more diverse array of ancient plants found at Gilboa, according to Davies.

390 million-year-old fossilized forest is the oldest ever discovered

Fortuitously discovered in southwest England, fossilized trees now claim the title of Earth's earliest-known forest, according to recent research. These 390 million-year-old fossils surpass the previously… pic.twitter.com/bfbIKZEvOf

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“The now-extinct plants, called cladoxylopsids, are believed to be closely connected to ferns and sphenopsids, which look like horsetails. They might resemble palm trees, but they’re not related to them at all,” Davies explained.

They have a tall central stem with what appears to be palm fronds branching off, but those fronds aren’t truly leaves—they’re actually bundles of small twigs, he further added.

These trees, crowned with twigs, would have reached heights of about 6.5 to 13 feet (2 to 4 meters). Hence, “it wouldn’t have been a very tall forest,” according to Davies.

Fossil trees preserved like ‘casts inside the sediment’

The fossil trees were preserved in two ways: some as hollow trunks filled with sediment and others as fallen logs that flattened over time almost like “casts inside the sediment,” Davies explained. Additionally, you can still see small scars where branches once connected to the trees.

Davies and his team stumbled upon these remnants of the forest while conducting fieldwork in the Hangman Sandstone Formation, which dates back to the Middle Devonian period, roughly 393 million to 383 million years ago.

During this period, the U.K. was part of a landmass called Laurentia, positioned just below the equator. As a result, the climate was warm and dry, according to Davies.

While older trees exist in various parts of the world, with plants beginning to colonize land around five hundred million years ago, this new finding represents the earliest known example of a forest where trees grew closely together and in large numbers, as reported by Live Science.