23-April-2007, 10:48 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 68
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Earth's First Rainforest Unearthed - 300 million years old.
Source: University of Bristol
Date: April 23, 2007
Earth's First Rainforest Unearthed
Science Daily — A spectacular fossilised forest has transformed our understanding of the ecology of the Earth's first rainforests. It is 300 million years old.
The forest is composed of a bizarre mixture of extinct plants: abundant club mosses, more than 40 metres high, towering over a sub-canopy of tree ferns, intermixed with shrubs and tree-sized horsetails. Nowhere elsewhere on the planet is it possible to (literally) walk through such an extensive swathe of Carboniferous rainforest.
It was discovered by Dr Howard Falcon-Lang from the University of Bristol, UK, and US colleagues, in the underground workings of a coalmine, in Illinois, USA. The results of this work are published online today in Geology, by the Geological Society of America.
The fossilized forest was preserved following a major earthquake 300 million years ago. The quake caused the whole region to drop below sea level whereupon the forest became buried in mud, preserving it forever.
Dr Howard Falcon-Lang said: "It was an amazing experience...
see -> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0423080506.htm
History of Earth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quote:
300 million years ago (10:25 p.m.) the most recent supercontinent formed, called Pangaea. The most severe extinction event to date took place 250 million years ago (10:40 p.m. on our clock), at the boundary of the Permian and Triassic periods; 95% of life on Earth died out,[59] possibly as a consequence of the Siberian Traps volcanic event.
The discovery of a crater hidden under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet has risen up a new theory that a meteor caused the mass extinction and possibly began the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent by creating the tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward.[60]
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see pics of weed 2 > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ferns02.jpg
So ...
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