This ancient tree never loses its shape. A team of researchers has discovered a 350-million-year-old fossilized tree species that looks like something out of Dr. Seuss.
The fossils, some of the oldest known trees, were discovered in what was once an ancient lake in northeastern Canada.The seeds are called Sanphodiacaulis densifolia And they would have lived under the tall parts of the forest canopy.of oldest fossil tree They date back to the late Devonian period, and these are from the early Carboniferous period, making them only a few million years younger.something is unknown sanford deer caris The closest relationship is on the tree of life (no pun intended). In other words, Insert Sedis—Mysterious taxon.
Dr. Seuss’ Truffula Tree was probably inspired by the cypress tree. passed away in 2019But some might argue that these real-life trees are even more alien. Research that describes ancient vegetation from leaves to stems published Today’s topic is current biology.
“We estimate that each leaf grew at least another meter before finishing,” Robert Gastaldo, a paleontologist at Colby College and lead author of the study, told Cell. release. “This means that ‘bottlebrush’ was not woody and had a dense canopy of leaves extending at least 5.5 meters (or 18 feet) around a trunk that was only 16 centimeters (or half a foot) in diameter. . It’s surprising to say the least.”
Ancient trees in New Brunswick were saved when an earthquake pushed the leaves at the edge of the lake underwater, pushing the trees into the lake bed. A recent paper focuses on the most complete of five tree specimens preserved in sandstone and siltstone at the site of an ancient lake that is now a quarry.
Based on the shape of the tree (huge canopy proportional to the size of the rest of its parts), the researchers concluded that: sanford deer caris We optimized its growth by blocking light from the surrounding greenery. The fossils revealed that the tree had about 250 leaves around its trunk, with each leaf extending nearly 6 feet (1.75 meters) from the trunk.
“The history of life on land is comprised of plants and animals that are different from those that live today,” Gastaldo said in a statement. “Evolutionary mechanisms that operated in the distant past allowed organisms to survive for long periods of time, but their shape, morphology, growth structure, and life history followed different trajectories and strategies.” Rare and unusual fossils are just one example of a failed experiment in colonizing our planet.”
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