Ankita
In a breathtaking finding, researchers have unearthed an old forest on a treeless island that was concealed by a sizable sinkhole. This discovery provides insight into the island’s historical temperature and environment. The discovery of the tree fossils indicates that the island was formerly the site of a temperate rainforest, which would have been very different from the wind-swept, desolate terrain that is observed now.
Unexpected Discovery
On the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, where trees haven’t grown in tens of thousands of years, the discovery was made. A normal fieldwork expedition in 2020 revealed to the researchers the existence of well-preserved tree trunks and branches buried about 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface.
“We thought that’s really weird, because one of the things about the Falklands that everyone knows about is that no trees grow,” said Dr. Zoë Thomas, the primary author of the study that was published in the journal Antarctic Science and a physical geography lecturer at Plymouth University.
Analyzing the Ancient Forest
The wood remnants and samples of the peat layers were transferred by the researchers to the University of New South Wales in Australia for laboratory analysis. There, in the same layers of peat as the wood, they examined a variety of spores that had been compressed and sealed.
The researchers came to the conclusion that the tree trunks and branches are between 15 and 30 million years old based on pollen records. The fact that the specimens came from a rainforest that resembled what is found in Patagonia now indicates that the climate of the Falkland Islands millions of years ago must have been warmer and wetter than it is now.
Thomas stated, “We found close relatives (in the Falkland Islands samples) including species of beech and conifer. A lot of tree species that are growing (in Patagonia) now hadn’t evolved yet.”
The finding offers concrete proof that the Falkland Islands once had cold, moist forests, which stands in sharp contrast to the area’s present predominance of grasslands.
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