Fossilised Tree Mystery Solved (4/20/2007)

One of the prehistoric tree stumps found at Gilboa - Eospermatopteris from Gilboa, NY. The specimen was originally collected in the 1920's associated with the building of Gilboa Dam. Credit: W. Stein.

An international research team including a Cardiff expert has found evidence of the Earth’s earliest forest trees, dating back 385 million years.

Upright stumps of fossilised trees were uncovered after a flash flood in Gilboa, upstate New York, more than a century ago. However, until now, no-one has known what the entire trees looked like.

Two years ago, two fossils were found near Gilboa of trees which had fallen sideways, with their trunk, branches, twigs and crown still intact.

American researchers called in Dr Christopher Berry of the School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, an expert who has studied tree fossils around the world for the last 17 years. Dr Berry was able to identify the trunks as being of the genus Wattieza, a tree fern-like plant.

View of the crown portion of Wattieza Stockmans from Schoharie County, New York. Credit: Albert Gnidica/New York State Museum.

Small fragments of Wattieza have been found in the past, but there was no direct evidence of how large the plant could grow. The new specimens show that they reached at least 8 metres in height and formed the first known forests on earth.

Dr Berry said: "This is a spectacular find, which has allowed us to recreate these early forest ecosystems. Branches from the trees would have fallen to the floor and decayed, providing a new food chain for the bugs living below.

"This was also a significant moment in the history of the planet. The rise of the forests removed a lot of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere. This caused temperatures to drop and the planet became very similar to its present-day condition."

Dr Berry worked with colleagues from Binghampton University, New York and from New York State Museum, which discovered the two trunk fossils. The findings are published in the April 19 edition of the scientific journal Nature.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Cardiff University

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