These are amongst the first plants to colonise the land when it was little more than rocks and eroding clays. The illustration illustrates this type of environment with colonies of these vascular small trees that grew in wet clay soils, not unlike the mangroves of today. Interestingly relatives of these plants still exist in marshy ground of streams and swamps. but these are very small by comparison, often less than 10 cm in height compared to the 10 foot trees of these early forests. Reproduction was by spores more like ferns than trees of today that produce flowers or cones with seed.

>>Paleontologists are generally thrilled to find pieces of an ancient tree or a few well-preserved fossil leaves, but researchers in China recently hit the mother lode, uncovering an entire fossilized forest covering about 2.7 million square feet. The trees are the oldest found in Asia, providing insights into how the root systems of modern forests developed.

Hannah Osborne at Newsweek reports that the forest was discovered in 2016 in the Jianchuan and Yongchuan clay mines near the village of Xinhang, in the east central part of the country. The ancient trees are visible in the walls of the quarry, including the trunks and structures resembling pinecones.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fossil-trees-reveal-oldest-known-forest-asia-180972877/

PermeateFree said:

These are amongst the first plants to colonise the land when it was little more than rocks and eroding clays. The illustration illustrates this type of environment with colonies of these vascular small trees that grew in wet clay soils, not unlike the mangroves of today. Interestingly relatives of these plants still exist in marshy ground of streams and swamps. but these are very small by comparison, often less than 10 cm in height compared to the 10 foot trees of these early forests. Reproduction was by spores more like ferns than trees of today that produce flowers or cones with seed.

>>Paleontologists are generally thrilled to find pieces of an ancient tree or a few well-preserved fossil leaves, but researchers in China recently hit the mother lode, uncovering an entire fossilized forest covering about 2.7 million square feet. The trees are the oldest found in Asia, providing insights into how the root systems of modern forests developed.

Hannah Osborne at Newsweek reports that the forest was discovered in 2016 in the Jianchuan and Yongchuan clay mines near the village of Xinhang, in the east central part of the country. The ancient trees are visible in the walls of the quarry, including the trunks and structures resembling pinecones.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fossil-trees-reveal-oldest-known-forest-asia-180972877/

Fascinating. I’m sill a bit confused about the clay pits. Are they claiming that clay soil from 365 million years ago remained clay soil to this present day, never buried and turned into rock, and never eroded by water? That seems an impossibly stable geology, but perhaps Michael V can help clear it up.

To give a sense of scale:

Witty Rejoinder said:

To give a sense of scale:

Ha

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

These are amongst the first plants to colonise the land when it was little more than rocks and eroding clays. The illustration illustrates this type of environment with colonies of these vascular small trees that grew in wet clay soils, not unlike the mangroves of today. Interestingly relatives of these plants still exist in marshy ground of streams and swamps. but these are very small by comparison, often less than 10 cm in height compared to the 10 foot trees of these early forests. Reproduction was by spores more like ferns than trees of today that produce flowers or cones with seed.

>>Paleontologists are generally thrilled to find pieces of an ancient tree or a few well-preserved fossil leaves, but researchers in China recently hit the mother lode, uncovering an entire fossilized forest covering about 2.7 million square feet. The trees are the oldest found in Asia, providing insights into how the root systems of modern forests developed.

Hannah Osborne at Newsweek reports that the forest was discovered in 2016 in the Jianchuan and Yongchuan clay mines near the village of Xinhang, in the east central part of the country. The ancient trees are visible in the walls of the quarry, including the trunks and structures resembling pinecones.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fossil-trees-reveal-oldest-known-forest-asia-180972877/

Fascinating. I’m sill a bit confused about the clay pits. Are they claiming that clay soil from 365 million years ago remained clay soil to this present day, never buried and turned into rock, and never eroded by water? That seems an impossibly stable geology, but perhaps Michael V can help clear it up.

Deep clays are remarkably stable, providing they are not influenced by metamorphosing events.

Witty Rejoinder said:

To give a sense of scale:

golf clap

Witty Rejoinder said:

To give a sense of scale:

Why don’t you produce some threads yourself instead of fucking up other peoples, you dumb shit!

Witty Rejoinder said:

To give a sense of scale:

still holding a weapon

PermeateFree said:

These are amongst the first plants to colonise the land when it was little more than rocks and eroding clays. The illustration illustrates this type of environment with colonies of these vascular small trees that grew in wet clay soils, not unlike the mangroves of today. Interestingly relatives of these plants still exist in marshy ground of streams and swamps. but these are very small by comparison, often less than 10 cm in height compared to the 10 foot trees of these early forests. Reproduction was by spores more like ferns than trees of today that produce flowers or cones with seed.

>>Paleontologists are generally thrilled to find pieces of an ancient tree or a few well-preserved fossil leaves, but researchers in China recently hit the mother lode, uncovering an entire fossilized forest covering about 2.7 million square feet. The trees are the oldest found in Asia, providing insights into how the root systems of modern forests developed.

Hannah Osborne at Newsweek reports that the forest was discovered in 2016 in the Jianchuan and Yongchuan clay mines near the village of Xinhang, in the east central part of the country. The ancient trees are visible in the walls of the quarry, including the trunks and structures resembling pinecones.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fossil-trees-reveal-oldest-known-forest-asia-180972877/

More on lycopods.

Lycopods are related to modern club mosses. During the Pennsylvanian Period (299 to 323 million years ago) these plants grew to the height of large trees. All of the trees are now extinct. Lycopods did not have woody tissues as many modern trees do. Instead, more than three-quarters of the trunk was composed of bark.

Extant lycopods.

These are all extinct lycopods from the Pennsylvanian age. They had reached very large heights by then.