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Fossilized swamp forest traced under the Chinese soil

Another episode resembling the discovery of Pompeii has lead to the tracking of a 298 million years old forest, buried under a coal mine near Wuda, in China. A team of American and Chinese scientists stumbled upon this lost forest of the Permian period under a Chinese coal mine. It is assumed that this mass of land had been obliterated from the face of the earth due to a volcanic eruption, exactly of the sort that had suffocated the entire population of Pompeii to an inescapable death.

The Lost Forest

The forest had been so perfectly fossilized during that period by volcanic ashes that it was seemingly effortless for the researchers to trace even minute details like position of the leaves on branches. Until now, six groups of trees have been isolated in these forests; a few of them reaching an extreme height of 80 feet. Some of them are the Sigillaria, Cordaites, etc. and a few others were of the Noeggerathiales family; the latter being extinct today.

This 1000 square metre enchanting forest was buried under the volcanic ash and scientists suppose that this was the outcome of continuous ash showers from the sky for days together. This event marked the end of the Palaeozoic era and the beginning of the whole new Mesozoic era with more complex forms of life. It was during this period that true mammals evolved and plants shifted from the fern class to give rise to the flowering families. In fact, this catastrophic event is said to mark one of the biggest mass obliteration ever in history.

Via: Gizmodo

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