World's oldest wood fossil discovered

It's strange to think that there was a time when there where no trees.

I have to agree.

An entire forest made out of fungi...creepy, except you know that there wouldn't be any animals either...or even bugs...

Heh, I was thinking about these giant fungi too as soon as I read the OP. But the OP is not about fungi, as you can see from the photo published with the article. "Trees would not evolve until about 385 million years ago, at which point they began scrambling to grow taller in order to capture more light. [u]Wood was crucial for this[/u], because it made their trunks sturdier." Well, the next is old news, but it shows fungi (=NOT plants) had no problems growing tall: Scientists have identified the Godzilla of fungi - a giant, prehistoric fossil that has evaded classification f... [More]

Re: "Bugs". If we are using the circa 400 million yr. figure, it would appear that insects were already present: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/02/12/1043512.htm http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6975/full/nature02291.html Aged and persistent rascals. .

Herb? Smokable herb? Imagine smoking an 400 million year old herb...I bet they had good stuff back then ;)

I am a new christian struggling with their idea of new age earth. These articles fascinate me but wish they would explain how they date things. By what process etc...

Theres a lot of ways of dating fossils. Although its been a number of years since I did history or even anything close to it, Carbon dating is but one way of dating a fossil as far as I remember. Google 'how do you date fossils' and you'll find what your looking for.