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Fossils of a 52-million-year-old tree found


Still Waters

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MILLIONS OF YEARS ago, a volcano erupted in what’s now the Patagonia region of southern Argentina, leaving behind a huge caldera. Water accumulated in the crater, and eventually it became a lake teeming with countless plants, insects, and other life-forms. Over time, these creatures fossilized deep within the lake’s layers of mud and ash, creating a kind of geological jackpot for today’s paleontologists.

Now, the ancient lake has yielded a particularly exciting treasure: fossils of a 52-million-year-old tree that is the first of its kind found in the Southern Hemisphere, suggesting the plant evolved there.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/06/prehistoric-tree-is-first-of-its-kind-found-below-the-equator/

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52 million years old? Good grief!

I bet counting the rings was a boring job.

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42 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

I was impressed with this find that I saw some years ago as it is a forest that was discovered in a coal mine in China.

First Photos of China's 298-Million-Year-Old Buried Forest

jmccr8

There's one of them in P.A. and one in West Virginia. You look up and see a whole fossil ecosystem. 

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50 minutes ago, Piney said:

There's one of them in P.A. and one in West Virginia. You look up and see a whole fossil ecosystem. 

Hi Piney

I googled buried forest in West Virginia and all I got was a list of cemeteries :lol:, would you have a link that I could look at.

jmccr8

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5 minutes ago, jmccr8 said:

Hi Piney

I googled buried forest in West Virginia and all I got was a list of cemeteries :lol:, would you have a link that I could look at.

jmccr8

I'll look a little later. I'm finishing up some millwork for the neighbor's staircase. It might not even be online because I was shown it when I was at U. of Penn.

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Just now, Piney said:

I'll look a little later. I'm finishing up some millwork for the neighbor's staircase. It might not even be online because I was shown it when I was at U. of Penn.

Hi Piney

Thanks

jmccr8

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I don't know the source but I have read of petrified wood as a falling danger from coal mine ceilings.

Here is one.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worlds-largest-fossil-wilderness-30745943/

The World’s Largest Fossil Wilderness

An Illinois coal mine holds a snapshot of life on earth 300 million years ago, when a massive earthquake “froze” a swamp in time

More here about the same large forest.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18279510/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/fossilized-rainforest-found-coal-mine/#.XP1XIohKiUk

070423_fossilfern_hmed_5p.grid-6x2.jpg

 
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13 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

I don't know the source but I have read of petrified wood as a falling danger from coal mine ceilings.

Here is one.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worlds-largest-fossil-wilderness-30745943/

The World’s Largest Fossil Wilderness

An Illinois coal mine holds a snapshot of life on earth 300 million years ago, when a massive earthquake “froze” a swamp in time

More here about the same large forest.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18279510/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/fossilized-rainforest-found-coal-mine/#.XP1XIohKiUk

070423_fossilfern_hmed_5p.grid-6x2.jpg

 

@jmccr8  This is the place.....Yeah, I'm getting old and braindead.......

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14 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

I don't know the source but I have read of petrified wood as a falling danger from coal mine ceilings.

Here is one.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worlds-largest-fossil-wilderness-30745943/

The World’s Largest Fossil Wilderness

An Illinois coal mine holds a snapshot of life on earth 300 million years ago, when a massive earthquake “froze” a swamp in time

More here about the same large forest.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18279510/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/fossilized-rainforest-found-coal-mine/#.XP1XIohKiUk

070423_fossilfern_hmed_5p.grid-6x2.jpg

 

Thanks Tatetopa

:tu:

jmccr8

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Somewhere I am pretty sure I remember that there are reports of finding fossil salamanders(?) or their ancestors in that Carboniferous forest debris. 

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I'd love to walk through a hologram of a forest at this timeframe, the fossils intrigue me so. The reality, not so much as I'd worry about dragonflies possibly carrying me off or something :D 

But wont it be cool when we can make historic displays like that to really bring it to life?

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