From the world’s longest living plant, the California alder, to the planet’s largest tropical forest, the Amazon, lush forests can seem endless.
According to experts, each species or ecosystem has a date of birth, and although plants came to Earth about 470 million years ago, trees and forests only appeared on the scene about 390 million years ago. .
Plant life has gradually evolved with the genetic precursors needed to produce trees and then surpassed other plants, paleobotanist Chris Berry of Cardiff University in England told Live Science.
In 2019, Berry and colleagues reported the oldest forest ever recorded for Current Biology. Discovered in a place called Cairo, New York, this forest has displayed in dozens of plants the unique characteristics of trees and forests, such as trees, roots, and leaves. “It arose earlier than previously thought: 385 million years ago, during the Devonian period,” said the researchers in the study.
Perry said the Cairo site preserves fossilized root systems of ancient trees and shows where they lived. “We don’t see tree fossils, but we do see a map of exactly where these trees stand, so what we’re learning is the forest environment,” he said.
The fossilized “map” appears on Archeopteris, an ancient plant characterized by “large woody roots and leafy woody branches” like modern trees, according to a report from Binghamton University in New York. Science has previously reported that the first known discovery of Archaeopteris puts the arrival of plants 20 million years later.
The development of early forests relied on the evolution of precursors to identify trees, Berry said.
“I think the driving force is my evolution, my evolution of anatomy that allows for more complex results,” he added.
Perry explained that such anatomy emerged once plants developed a “genetic toolset for building” tree -like structures, early branching systems, and explained that they were developed, for example, during the Silurian period. (443.8 million), before the Devonian. . to 419.2 million years ago). ), while the first roots reach the early Devonian.
According to two reports from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the tree’s properties have been given significant benefits, particularly the ability to rise in competition to absorb sunlight.
“Some environmental changes could make at least one important feature of the tree possible,” Berry added. Megaphiles, which are now usually leafy and have branching roots, can grow larger than their predecessors and thus absorb more sunlight. It first appeared about 390 million years ago, but started small and spread only after 30 million years, by the end of the Devonian period, according to a 2021 study in the journal Nature.
The study found that this delay occurs because rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) are warming the Earth for large, large leaves, which absorb excess sunlight and heat it. However, the sharp drop in CO2 levels in the Devonian has benefited twice as much from the large spurts.
The study explained that the reduction in greenhouse gases cools the planet, that megafauna can expand into more pores called stomata to absorb higher levels of declining carbon dioxide, and that these leaves are can help advance the revolution in the forest.
Source: Life Science
Source: Arabic RT
