Fossilized Cypress Trees May Reveal 8-million-year-old Climate

The researchers have already offered several climate models that define the ancient weather on earth. But, now they have perhaps come up with a new source of climate patters that existed 8 millions years ago — this may very soon be revealed by a group of newly discovered fossilized swamp cypress trees.

A team of Hungarian researchers have recently unearthed some fossilized swamp cypress trees that stood on the earth swaying 8 million years ago i.e. the late Miocene geological period when the Carpathian basin, presently Hungary, was a swamps-surrounded freshwater lake.

To add to the teams achievement, the wood of 16 Taxodium trees was preserved in an open-cast coal mine instead of getting petrified, i.e. turning to stone. This allows the geologists study samples of the ancient trees as if they were sections cut from a piece of living wood!

Excited about the rare state of the find, Alfred Dulai, geologist at the Hungarian Natural History Museum said,

The importance of the findings is that so a number of trees got preserved in their original position in one place. But the real rarity about these trees is that. their original wood got preserved. they did not turn into stone.


Data that can be collected from these fossil trees can definitely throw light on the climatic patters of the pre-historic times.

This would help analyze the changing trend of the earths climatic conditions from 300 million years ago till date, through what it was like 8 million years back.

Image. Posted by: Irani    Source