By Lee Ji-hyun
A forest stunningly well preserved for 300 million years has been unearthed under a layer of volcanic ash in northern China. It is being called the Chinese version of Pompeii, reported BBC News and Science Daily on Feb. 21.
American and Chinese scientists were able to restore 1,000 square meters forest near Wuda in Neimenggu (Inner Mongolia). The findings of the distribution of trees and plants in the forest were published in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Due to the pristine preservation of some plants, the research team estimates the ash fell over the course of just a few days, felling and damaging some of the trees and plants under its weight but otherwise keeping them intact.
“It's marvelously preserved," said study co-author Hermann Pfefferkorn of the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S.
Scientists also identified branches and leaves from forest trees. They had to remove 1,000 square meters of volcanic ash in three regions to excavate and find paleontological fossils.
When a nearby volcano erupted some 298 million years ago, the supercontinent Pangea was forming, North America and Europe were joined as one and China was separated into two continents. Both had a tropical climate.
The team identified six groups of trees, ranging from low-lying tree ferns to now-extinct 25 meter-tall trees Sigillaria and Cordaites, as well as well-preserved specimens of another extinct group called Noeggerathiales.
“The discovery of the forest is like Pompeii, which gives us deep insight into Roman culture. It's a time capsule and therefore it allows us now to interpret what happened before or after much better," one of the scientists said.