Restoring the oldest tree in the world

The first woody tree in the world was nearly 9 meters tall and looked like a modern palm tree, scientists announced after recreating it. More than a century ago, workers unearthed hundreds of vertical stumps dating back 385 million years, after a flood in Gilboa, New York, but little information was revealed about the shape of the tree. this.

In 2004, scientists unearthed a 160-kilogram fossil tree of the same plant a few miles away. The following summer, the team explored a piece of stem nearly 9 meters long. Pairing the tops, stems and stumps, scientists reconstructed the shape of the complete trunk.

"These are very big trees," said research group member William Stein, a botanist at New York State University in Binghamton. "This revision shows that they are much longer and much more similar to any previous reconstructed trunk," Stein said.

Ancient tree shape is reproduced. ( Photo: LiveScience)

This species belongs to a group of ancient fern-like plants called Wattieza . Unlike flowering plants, using seeds to reproduce, Wattieza uses spores - a method of reproduction of algae, ferns and fungi.

The discovery will help scientists understand the important transition point in the history of the earth - when the first forests appeared.

Wattieza lived in the Devonian period - before ocean creatures crawled on land. "The plants have been around 140 million years before the dinosaurs. At that time, there were no flying birds, no reptiles and no amphibians," the scientists said. They are now extinct.

The emergence of land plants such as Wattieza has dramatically changed the climate and paved the way for the territorial expansion of animals and insects. "Forests have taken away quite a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere. This makes the temperature drop and the earth becomes closer to today's conditions."

Tree tops (Photo: LiveScience)

Tree stump (Photo: LiveScience)

T. An