World's oldest forest fossil found in England, 390 million years ago

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

世界最古の森林化石見つかる、３．９億年前　英

2024.03.11 Mon posted at 20:00 JST

（ＣＮＮ） 英イングランド南西部で、地球上で知られている最古の森林化石が見つかった。英ケンブリッジ大学が明らかにした。

同大学の発表によれば、今回見つかった森林化石は３億９０００万年前にさかのぼり、これまで最古とみられていた米ニューヨーク州の森林化石よりも４００万年古いものとなる。

今回の森林化石は、マインヘッド近くのブリストル海峡南側の高い砂岩の崖で見つかった。

見つかった木は「カラモフィトン」として知られ、ヤシの木によく似ているが、幹は細くて空洞になっている。ケンブリッジ大学地球科学科のニール・デイビス講師によれば、カラモフィトンには葉っぱがなく、小枝のようなものが枝を覆っている。

２～４メートルの高さに達し、成長するにつれて枝を落とす。

今回の森林は４億１９００万年から３億５８００万年前にさかのぼるデボン紀のもので、当時、生命が陸上へと進出してきた。

デイビス氏によれば、森林は根っこに堆積（たいせき）物を閉じ込め、川岸や海岸線を安定させていたとみられる。

デイビス氏は「それらは、そうすることで特定の場所に水を囲い込み、小さな水路を形成していた。基本的には受け身ではなく、自らが住みたい環境を構築していた」と説明した。

デイビス氏によれば、今回の調査結果によって、初期の森林が急速に発展したことも明らかになったという。

英国の化石は１種類の樹木しかないまばらな森だったのに対し、ニューヨーク州の森林はわずか４００万年後に生息していたにもかかわらず、地面に生えるつる性の樹木など木々の種類がより多様だったという。

Translation

(CNN) The oldest known forest fossils on Earth had been discovered in southwestern England. This was announced by the University of Cambridge.

According to a statement from the university, the newly discovered forest fossils dated back 390 million years, making them 4 million years older than the oldest known forest fossils in New York state.

The forest fossils were found on high sandstone cliffs on the south side of the Bristol Channel near Minehead.

The tree found was known as a `` Calamophyton'', looked a lot like a palm tree, but with a thin, hollow trunk. Neil Davis, a lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, explained that Calamophyton did not have leaves, but instead had something like twigs covering the branches.

It could reach a height of 2 to 4 meters and shed branches as it grew.

The forest in question dated back to the Devonian period, which dated from 419 million to 358 million years ago, when life first moved onto land.

The forests likely stabilized riverbanks and coastlines by trapping sediment in their roots, Davis said.

Davis explained, "In doing so, they were corralling water in specific areas, forming small channels. They were basically not passive, and were creating the environments they wanted to live in."

Davis said the findings also showed that early forests developed rapidly.

While the British fossil was a sparse forest with only one type of tree, the New York state forest was inhabited only 4 million years later, had many types of trees, and was said to be more diverse that included vines etc. that grew on the ground.

              So, the oldest known forest fossils have been discovered. It was a sparse forest with only one type of tree. In comparation to New York state forest that was inhabited only 4 million years later that had many types of trees and had more diversity that include vines etc., probably we can say that within these 4 million years, plants on earth had evolved a lot.