世界上最古老的化石森林在紐約被發(fā)現(xiàn)

世界上最古老的化石森林在紐約被發(fā)現(xiàn)

When researchers were exploring an abandoned quarry in Cairo in the Catskills region of New York, they came across an elaborate fossilized root system on the site. They discovered that the labyrinth of snaking tree roots was 386 million years old and belonged to dozens of ancient trees.

當研究人員在紐約卡茨基爾地區(qū)開羅的一個廢棄采石場進行勘探時，他們在現(xiàn)場發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個復雜的根系化石。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)蜿蜒曲折的樹根迷宮有3.86億年的歷史，屬于幾十棵古樹。

Photo: William Stein and Christopher Berry

"The Cairo site is very special," team member Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, told Science. "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees. Standing on the quarry surface we can reconstruct the living forest around us in our imagination."

“開羅遺址非常特別，”研究小組成員、英國卡迪夫大學的古植物學家克里斯托弗·貝里告訴《科學》雜志。“你正在穿過古老的樹根。站在采石場的地面上，我們可以在想象中重建周圍的森林。”

Berry and her team first discovered the roots in 2009 and have been working to analyze all the fossils on the site. Some of the roots are nearly 6 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter and spread out into web-like patterns that are 36 feet (11 meters) wide.

貝瑞和她的團隊在2009年首次發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些植物的根，并一直在對現(xiàn)場的所有化石進行分析。有些樹根直徑近6英寸(15厘米)，呈網(wǎng)狀分布，寬36英尺(11米)。

Overview of a well-preserved Archaeopteris root system (left) and a possible Stigmarian Isoetalean lycopsid. (Photo: William Stein and Christopher Berry)

Many of the roots belong to Archaeopteris, a tree with large roots and woody branches that's an ancestor of today's modern trees, the researchers report in Current Biology. (You can see the roots of Archaeopteris in the photo directly above and more clearly in the photo at the top of this file.)

研究人員在《當代生物學》雜志上發(fā)表報告稱，許多根屬于古都蕨屬，是一種具有根和木本植物的樹，它是當今現(xiàn)代樹木的祖先。(你可以在正上方的照片中看到始祖鳥的根，在這個文件頂部的照片中可以看得更清楚。)

The trees were one of the earliest to take carbon dioxide from the air and store it. Their deep roots would break up the soil, triggering chemical reactions that would pull CO2 from the atmosphere.

這些樹是最早從空氣中吸收并儲存二氧化碳的樹木之一。它們的深根會破壞土壤，引發(fā)化學反應，從大氣中吸收二氧化碳。

"All these trees appearing was having an effect of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," Berry told New Scientist. "By the end of the Devonian period [360 million years ago], the amount of carbon dioxide was coming down to what we know it is today."

貝瑞告訴《新科學家》雜志:“所有這些樹木的出現(xiàn)都起到了清除大氣中二氧化碳的作用。”“到泥盆紀末期(距今3.6億年前)，二氧化碳的含量已經(jīng)下降到今天的水平。”

So far, researchers have mapped more than 32,000 square feet (3,000 square meters) of the forest. They say they hope to compare their findings to other forests around the world.

到目前為止，研究人員已經(jīng)測繪了超過32000平方英尺(3000平方米)的森林。他們說，他們希望將他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)與世界上其他森林相比較。

"It seems to me, worldwide, many of these kinds of environments are preserved in fossil soils. And I'd like to know what happened historically, not just in the Catskills, but everywhere," lead author William Stein, an emeritus professor of biological science at Binghamton University, New York, said in a release. "Understanding evolutionary and ecological history — that's what I find most satisfying."

“在我看來，在世界范圍內(nèi)，許多這樣的環(huán)境都保存在化石土壤中。我想知道歷史上發(fā)生了什么，不僅僅是在卡茨基爾，而是在世界各地。”來自紐約的賓格頓大學生物科學榮譽教授威廉斯坦在發(fā)布會上表示。“了解進化和生態(tài)歷史——這是我最滿意的事情。”