Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery of the Earth’s oldest fossil forest on the north coast of Devon and Somerset in the U.K. The remnants of this ancient forest, estimated to be around 390 million years old, were found as part of an extensive forest that covered the east coast of the Old Red Sandstone continent.
This discovery is significant as the Somerset forest is 4 to 5 million years older than the previous record holder in Cairo, New York, in the U.S. The fossils found in the U.K. show incomplete trunks up to 2 meters long of a pioneering type of tree called cladoxylopsids, which dominated terrestrial ecosystems for about 5 million years before modern woody trees emerged.
The findings, recently published in the Journal of the Geological Society, shed new light on tree evolution and their role in shaping the modern world. The Calamophyton trees, resembling palm trees, were identified as the oldest fossil trees ever found in Britain, standing between 2 and 4 meters tall with hollow trunks and woody supporting strands.
Dr. Christopher Berry, who made the discovery, highlighted the environmental context and spacing of the trees while they were living. The North Devon and Somerset site, now situated in the U.K., was likely originally located much closer to Belgium and Germany before being relocated during the Carboniferous period. This finding emphasizes a crucial stage in Earth’s development and the evolving interaction between water and land.
