"A reconstruction of the 300-million-year-old peat-forming forest at a site near Wuda, China. (c) University of Pennsylvania"
An 11,000 square foot forest was found in China this week, one that had been buried in coal for nearly 300 million years. What scientists are calling a "time capsule" is a surprisingly well preserved area with now extinct species of trees and plants. The 66-cm ash layer preserved these plants and topped trees. Photos can be seen in the official PNAS report
here. I think it is amazing how well an ash layer can preserve plant life like it did here. For 300 million years, the fossils held up very well. Hopefully something good with come of these findings, I would love to learn more about our Earth during the time that the continental plates were still forming Pangaea.
ARTICLE:
znescience - 300 million year old forest discovered under coal mine in China
UPDATE 2/23/2012 - As for laws this connects to, it's difficult to say. The entire study is done outside of our country on the other side of the world. So, if any laws come into play here, they are likely international laws or one of a foreign country's.
Most likely, this study does not conflict or reference any sort of law, since the nature of the study is studying ash fossils.
2 comments:
This is an amazing find for scientists and all people. Usually it is the organic things that we know nothing or very little about because they don't preserve well like other hard metals and bone. I bet the ones whom discovered this are ecstatic. The fossils in this article are just amazing. So beautiful and real. I would love to be able to see them up close someday.
Wow what a great find! The pictures were really great, so well preserved.I also can't wait to hear more about their findings.
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