11 MAY 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Core Drilling Reveals the World’s Oldest Forest Compiled by Sophia Henline, Editorial Assistant, WorldWide Drilling Resource® Earth is such an amazing place, with so many mysteries yet to be discovered. The drilling industry has helped in many discoveries when it comes to our world. One of those was the unveiling of the oldest forest in the world, which is located at a quarry in Cairo, New York. This forest, said to be 385 million years old, was home to millipede-like bugs and other insects. Dinosaurs would not appear on earth for another 150 million years. Charles Ver Straeten, along with colleagues Linda Van Aller Hernick and Frank Mannolini, were scouting the area, when Charles’ eye caught a pattern in the stone of the old quarry. What he saw in the stone were wandering gutters, a feature common in marine rocks. As he walked, he traced 11 lines leading to a single point. He realized the lines showed roots of an ancient and very large tree. With this discovery, researchers believe there is much to learn from these ancient root impressions. Dr. William Stein, associate professor of biology at the State University at Binghamton, and his team of researchers were there when core drilling operations at the Cairo site discovered three unique root systems. Stein and his team hypothesized the forest of the Devonian Period were mixed with different trees, occupying different places depending on local conditions. They identified a tree-like palm tree called Eospermatopteris. Its roots had limited range and probably lived a year or two before dying. These trees reached about 30 feet tall, lacked wood, and looked like ferns. Researchers also found evidence of a tree called Archaeopteris. This tree reproduced by releasing spores into the air, but it had early hints at developing into a seed plant. Did you know that Archaeopteris were the first known plant to form leaves and were large woody plants formed from secondary tissues? With its modern underground system, the tree was able to continue to expand its roots, accommodating continuous growth of a long-lived larger type of tree. “Archaeopteris seems to reveal the beginning of the future of what forests will ultimately become,” said Stein. Scale trees were the third root system to be found, which surprised researchers. Those trees belong to the class called Lycopsida, which was thought to only exist during the Carboniferous Period. Lycopsid trees were related to modern club mosses and horsetails. This forest would have featured trees as tall as 65 feet, trunks over 4 feet in diameter, with smaller trees and plants growing between them. To investigate geochemical changes, scientists drilled into the fossil soil between the root system. With the tree’s discovery, we now know the crucial role they played in altering earth’s climate, by absorbing carbon dioxide and the impact it had on development of the Devonian Ice Ages. Three-inch cores were drilled to depths ranging from three feet to nine feet. The cores were cut in half longitudinally, with half conserved at the New York State Museum. The half sampled for further study at the University of Sheffield and National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK, are now permanently housed at Cardiff University. With researchers unearthing multiple fish fossils, they theorized, a massive flood was the cause of the forest demise. ENV Photo of core drilling operations, by William Stein. 302-684-319 & Mfg., Inc. Atlantic Scree et om ducts 97 en E-mail: atlantic@ce.ne Atlantic-Screen.co Clear PVC Pipe j Inline Chemical Mixers j ell Rehabilitation Prod jW DE 142 Broadkill Rd Milton, ½” - 24 ranging fr Perforated of Slotted Manufactu Fax: 302-384-0643 more! MUCH And j Bailers Sampling j Locking Caps j Filter Sock j Bentonite j Manholes j Pipe Clear PVC 4” rom Pipe and urers E 19968
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