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Forgotten Forests From A Not So Ancient World
Posted 05-13-2009 at 09:06 AM by bluepacific
While visiting with the head Botanist from the Göteborg Botanical Gardens, we discussed a speciman tree on hand called Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) The tree was long considered an extinct type of Redwood until it was actually redicovered in the mid-1940s in central China. Prior to this it was only known from fossil remains from North Dakota and a remote northern most area of the Canadian Archipelago called Axel Heiberg Island next to Greenland. This is an area 1,110 kilometers north of the Arctice Circle.
This fascinating thing about these trees on this Arctic Island is that the stumps and logs remain in the valley plain and the are not so much fossilized as they are mummified, since the wood still burns. Here are some actual photos of this ancient forest remnants.
The interesting thing about these ancient forests is that these trees have been measured to be around 24.6 meters or over 80 foot in height based on studies from the stump sizes and logs found. Certainly not the stumpy conifers of present day sub-arctic regions today. The stumps found are trees in their original growing postion and location, along with other wood debris, leaves, cones, etc. The Researchers there have found that they appear to have been wiped out by a tremendous flood waters as recently as about 10,000 years ago. Hence the preservation from this environment is even better than year old wood found in modern forest floor environs. The Earth's climate seems to have been a much different green house type conditions than exist presently. These areas would have been temperate type conditions we know of around Washington & Oregon. Many larger animals lived in these regions. The only similiarity today are the seasonal long summer daylight hours and the long 5-6 months of darkness which these forests and animals were adapted to.
This fascinating thing about these trees on this Arctic Island is that the stumps and logs remain in the valley plain and the are not so much fossilized as they are mummified, since the wood still burns. Here are some actual photos of this ancient forest remnants.
The interesting thing about these ancient forests is that these trees have been measured to be around 24.6 meters or over 80 foot in height based on studies from the stump sizes and logs found. Certainly not the stumpy conifers of present day sub-arctic regions today. The stumps found are trees in their original growing postion and location, along with other wood debris, leaves, cones, etc. The Researchers there have found that they appear to have been wiped out by a tremendous flood waters as recently as about 10,000 years ago. Hence the preservation from this environment is even better than year old wood found in modern forest floor environs. The Earth's climate seems to have been a much different green house type conditions than exist presently. These areas would have been temperate type conditions we know of around Washington & Oregon. Many larger animals lived in these regions. The only similiarity today are the seasonal long summer daylight hours and the long 5-6 months of darkness which these forests and animals were adapted to.
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