Fossilized Rainforest discovered in Illinois

[walldude]

This is simply amazing.. Wonder how the fundies are going to explain this one..

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/science/largest-fossil-rainforest-discovered-$1078611.htm

"The world's largest fossilized rainforest has been discovered in the US by a British-led team.

Geologists say the 300 million-year-old tropical forest, which was found in the underground workings of an Illinois coal mine, provides a "unique snapshot" of prehistoric ecology.

<snip>

"We walked for miles and miles along pitch-black passages with the fossil forest just above our heads. We were able to make a map of the forest by the light of our miner's lamps."

Explaining the significance of the find, Dr Falcon-Lang continued: "As there is nothing like it around today, before our work we knew very little about the ecological preferences and community structure of these ancient plants.

[NYC]

1. I find that amazing.

...the "spectacular" forest contained a "bizarre mixture" of extinct plants, 40m high club mosses, shrubs and tree-sized horsetails.

"It was an amazing experience," he explains. "We drove down the mine in an armoured vehicle, until we were a hundred metres below the surface. The fossil forest was rooted on top of the coal seam, so where the coal had been mined away the fossilised forest was visible in the ceiling of the mine...

[illinoisprogressive]

2. I wonder where in Illinois. I live in the northcentral part.

[Rincewind]

5. Vermilion County

Just heard on the local news it was discovered in Vermilion county, east central Illinois about 40 miles East of where I live.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. It's Just South Of Livingston County, Right?

The Professor

[Canuckistanian]

3. I wonder how many treasures are lost to coal mining

Coal is, after all, just the remnants of fossilized plants.

Millions of years to produce.

Burned in a day.

[Double T]

6. And NOT renewable for many millions of years. 'WE' take too much........

granted I'm afraid.

[bleedingheart]

15. my uncle is a coal miner and has a bunch of fossils in his basement

he and the other miners would find them as they were mining....and the unique ones he would carve out of the rock and bring home...
some are in coal...others are in other types of rock.

[Double T]

4. Very interesting find and article...........

makes me wonder what the earth will look like in another 300 million years, if it is still here. Thank you for posting.

[phaseolus]

7. The earth isn't going anywhere, but it will be waaaay different.

We wouldn't recognize the continents and oceans. Mountain ranges that don't even exist yet will have arisen and worn away. Nevada will be under water and California will have moved somewhere. South, maybe.

Very few species stay relatively unchanged over 300 million years, so our descendants could be very different from us, or our little branch of the tree of life might be extinct. There will be plants and animals and bugs. Many phyla we know today should still be around -- I'd guess that ants, cockroaches, beetles, spiders, worms, birds, fish, conifers, daisies, and lots of other familiar things would still be recognizable, though they would have had lots of time to adapt & change a little, or a lot.

Who knows what the most intelligent creature will be?

[BreweryYardRat]

8. Discovery channel was betting on evolved cephalopods as the next sentient species.

And sharks + crocs will be sticking around in some form or another-it's only logical.

[smoogatz]

12. What, like octopi? Cool. nt

[jollyreaper2112]

18. they already exist

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/



The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

[smoogatz]

20. Funny.

Thanks for the a.m. chuckle.

[BreweryYardRat]

22. Squid-like things actually.

[smoogatz]

23. Will they think we're tasty

cut up into rings, breaded and deep friend with a bit of red pepper?

[ArbustoBuster]

25. The general opinion of geologists is...

...that in about a quarter of a billion years there will be another supercontinent called Pangaea Ultima. It will form as the current continents slowly run into one another. The last time this happened was before the dinosaurs. It appears to have happened several times before that as well, going back through geological history.

[madokie]

9. One of my friends was working on a project for PSO on an excavation project

when he noticed what looked like a stump appearing where they were removing the dirt and upon closer inspection he seen it was a stump, a fosilized stump. there were many others also uncovered there, he brought a few chunks of it home. its very dense and real damn heavy. on the Verdrigris river up by nowata oklahoma is where this was.

[smoogatz]

10. But of course it's only 5,000 years old...

That fossilization thing can happen practically overnight.

Snrk.

[Daphne08]

16. No, the Devil put it all there...

to test our faith. :sarcasm:


:)

[smoogatz]

19. Butbutbut God made everything so he must have made the Devil

and everything happens because God makes it happen so GOD is testing our faith! OMGorsh, it's just like the book of Job! God left fossils lying around to trick us into believing in evolution so he'd have a good reason to send unbelievers to hell, because, you know, he loves them! Well, I'm not falling for it. If you can't believe Pat Robertson, you can't believe anything.

I think I'm getting a headache...

[H2O Man]

11. Fascinating.

I had read an article about this find earlier this morning. Not far from where I live, there is is a fossil of a large fern, approximately 8'. It looks more like a small tree. Many years ago, some people from Hartwick College in Oneonta were in the neighborhood, looking at an early Iroquios site, and a few of us showed them the fossil.

People who cut blue stone often find smaller fossils that are similar to this one. A history book on Delaware County, NY, which was published in 1880, notes that the sidewalks in Delhi had numerous examples of these giant ferns. The local people turned them face-down.

Native American occupation sites indicate that Indians found fossils of interest, too. I've picked up a number of interesting ones over the years. The fossilized plants are less common than those of various shells. It sounds like a breath-taking find in Illinois.

[mrbscott19]

13. Finally Central IL gets something cool.....

Vermillion County? Really? I grew up there and live next door in Champaign county. I'll have to call some relatives this morning and see if they know anything. This is awesome!

[Horse with no Name]

17. Oh please

How can this be 300 million years old when the earth is only 7000 years old?
Fawking liberal.;)

[rosesaylavee]

21. Very cool

K & R

[newyawker99]

24. This is a great story.

:thumbsup: