Scientists uncover world’s oldest forest

Scientists have discovered remnants of the world's oldest fossil forest in a sandstone quarry in Cairo, New York. It is believed the extensive network of trees, which would have spread from New York all the way into Pennsylvania and beyond, is around 386 million years old. This makes the Cairo forest around 2 or 3 million years older than what was thought to be the world's oldest forest at Gilboa, also in New York State and around 40 km away from the Cairo site. The new findings, which have been published today in the journal Current Biology , have thrown new light on the evolution of trees and the transformative role they played in shaping the world we live in today. A team led by scientists at Binghamton University, New York State Museum and Cardiff University have mapped over 3,000 square meters of the forest at the abandoned quarry in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in the Hudson Valley. Their investigations showed that the forest was home to at least two types of trees: cladoxylopsids, primitive tree-fern-like plants, which lacked flat green leaves, and which also grew in vast numbers at Gilboa; and Archaeopteris , which had a conifer-like woody trunk and frond-like branches which had green flattened leaves. A single example of a third type of tree was also uncovered, which remained unidentified but could possibly have been a lycopod.