(LINKS TO PAST FOSSIL
FRIDAYS)
Community College (LRCCD)
Geology & Earth Science Instructor: Arthur Reed, P.G.
Happy
Fossil Friday!
Friday March 26, 2021
World’s
oldest (fossil) forest found in N.Y. quarry.
It’s
as close as you can come to walking in an ancient ‘Devonian’ forest.
"You
are walking through the roots of ancient trees. Standing on the quarry surface,
we can reconstruct the living forest around us in our imagination."
Researchers
explore an Archaeopteris root system (one of many) at the Cairo, N.Y. fossil
forest site.
Researchers
have found the (fossil) root systems of several Devonian age
(385-million-year-old) trees in the floor of an old quarry in upstate New
York. Apparently, the strata has remained relatively horizontal at this location since
that time and what is seen is the shallow subsurface of an ancient forest floor
(deposition, uplift, erosion, etc. have likely occurred). This is the period just before the massive
coal accumulations of the carboniferous were deposited and when amphibians were
just starting to explore land.
It
was during this time that land plants began drawing CO2 out of
Earth’s atmosphere greatly reducing the percentage of atmospheric CO2
and adding more oxygen thereby providing a terrestrial environment favorable
for animals to begin leaving the sea and adapting to life on dry land. These early forests made major changes in the
ecosystems, soils, climate, atmosphere, and even oceans.
Video
of Similar discoveries were made ten years ago at nearby Gilboa site also
in New York.
Narrated
by Dr. William Stein of Binghamton University
Short
video by Binghamton University on the Cairo, N.Y. site
Short
animation of a Devonian forest
Another
view from the same location (the stone blocks are not related to this work)
The orange line in the above
illustration represents today’s quarry surface
Research regional location