Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
Related: About this forumPrimordial Fossils of Earth's 1st Trees Reveal Their Bizarre Structure
By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | October 23, 2017 03:52pm ET
Earth's first trees had hundreds of tree-like structures within them, making them exceedingly more intricate than the insides of modern trees, a new study finds.
Researchers made the discovery after studying the fossils of 374-million-year-old trees found in northwest China. The fossils showed that these ancient trees had an interconnected mesh of woody strands, the researchers found.
"It's just bizarre," said study co-researcher Christopher Berry, a senior lecturer of paleobotany at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. [Nature's Giants: Photos of the Tallest Trees on Earth]
The two specimens were found in 2012 and 2015 in Xinjiang, China, by study lead researcher Hong-He Xu, of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The specimens belong to a group of trees known as cladoxylopsids, which are known to have existed from the Middle Devonian to the Early Carboniferous periods, from about 393 million to 320 million years ago, long before dinosaurs walked the Earth.
- click for image -
https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA5Ni8zMjAvb3JpZ2luYWwvQ2FsYW1vcGh5dG9uX0ZvcmVzdC5qcGc/MTUwODc4NzY2OQ==
More:
https://www.livescience.com/60746-earth-oldest-trees-had-complex-structure.html?utm_source=notification
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
5 replies, 1334 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (9)
ReplyReply to this post
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Primordial Fossils of Earth's 1st Trees Reveal Their Bizarre Structure (Original Post)
Judi Lynn
Oct 2017
OP
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)1. When I read this I thought of palm trees
hunter
(38,264 posts)2. "Bizarre," but evolution is whatever works... they just had to be taller than their competition...
...and strong enough not to fall down.
Xipe Totec
(43,872 posts)3. The fundamental driving force of the universe is recursion. nt
hunter
(38,264 posts)5. For example, the Barnsley fern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnsley_fern
Recursive patterns are common in nature.
The recursive tear-repair cycle of cladoxylopsid trunk growth may not have been as efficient as modern trees, but it worked. They got the light, their shorter shaded neighbors did not.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)4. Interesting photo