Scientists in Minehead, Somerset, South West England have recently discovered what is believed to be the world’s oldest fossilized forest. Located in high sandstone cliffs near a holiday camp, the findings are groundbreaking, with researchers from Cambridge and Cardiff Universities proclaiming these trees as the oldest fossilized trees in Britain and on Earth.
Known as calamophyton, these ancient trees resemble palm trees, standing between two and four meters tall. The discovery also included fossils of plants and debris, as well as fossilized tree logs and root traces, shedding light on how early trees shaped landscapes millions of years ago.
Dr. Christopher Berry from Cardiff’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences expressed his excitement, stating, “It was amazing to see them so near to home. But the most revealing insight comes from seeing, for the first time, these trees in the positions where they grew.”
The fossil forest, dating back to the Devonian Period between 419 and 358 million years ago, provides invaluable information about early plant life. Researchers noted that the forest is approximately four million years older than the previous record-holder in New York State, offering a glimpse into the time when plant life first expanded onto land.
Prof. Neil Davies from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences described the forest as “pretty weird,” lacking undergrowth and grass, but with densely packed trees that significantly impacted the landscape. Dr. Paul Kenrick, an expert on plant fossils at the Natural History Museum, emphasized the importance of these findings in understanding how plants grew together during that era.
The discovery sheds light on a semi-arid plain that was once attached to parts of Germany and Belgium, where similar fossils have been found. These ancient trees, unlike any seen today, offer insights into a distant past when the Earth looked radically different from the world we know now.