It's a "pretty weird forest"—but a record-setting one. Scientists say they've found the oldest known forest on Earth, taking the crown from a forest in New York's Catskills that had previously held the title. The BBC reports the fossilized forest, reported on in the Journal of the Geological Society, was discovered in high sandstone cliffs on the coast of South West England and dates to 390 million years ago; that's about 4 million years older than the New York one. More on the find:
- The trees themselves: Lead author Neil Davies of Cambridge explains the forest's weirdness, noting the find is "not like any forest you would see today." The fossilized trees are Calamophyton, which looked like palm trees. But as a press release explains, they "were a 'prototype' of the kinds of trees we are familiar with today," with hollow trunks, zero leaves, and branches covered in a sea of twig-like structures. The tallest was 12 feet.