Here inside of the Empire State, you can find all sorts of unique natural wonders that you won’t be able to find just anywhere else. Up north in the Adirondack Park,While you can find America’s oldest natural attraction, while all the way out in Western New York you can find what’s known as the Grand Canyon of the East! As miraculous as all of these amazing works of Mother Nature’s art may be, there’s simply nothing else quite like the jaw-dropping discovery that was just made by a group of researchers down in the Catskill Mountains.
While everyone was getting amped up for the holiday season here in New York, researchers were busy at work in Greene County’s small town of Cairo discovering the world’s oldest forest.
To anyone who’s familiar with New York’s natural history, you know that this discovery actually isn’t as shocking as you may think due to the fact that up until this most recent discovery, the title-holder of the world’s oldest forest was located just over 20-miles away in the town of Gilboa!
Doug Kerr/Flickr
Estimated to be about 386 million-years-old, researchers uncovered what it is now being deemed as the world’s oldest forest in a random quarry where fossilized root systems show evidence of both leaves and wood from the Devonian Period.
Melanie Lekocevic/YouTube
According to Binghamton University Professor William Stein, the fossilized forest that once was made up of a wide-ranging network of trees that actually reproduced using spores instead of the typical seed system.
marinahineva’/Flickr
During its heyday, Cairo’s unique forest had three major coniferous and fern-like plants that are known for having frond-like branches and woody trunks - a Eospermatopteris genus, aArchaeopteris genus, and a plant possibly from the Lycopsida class.
Franek N/Flickr
With plans to research more areas in the Catskill Mountains, Binghamton University Professor William Stein is determined to find more fossilized forests that will teach us even further about our planet’s past and ecosystem. Who knows what they’ll find next!
Melanie Lekocevic/YouTube
Doug Kerr/Flickr
Melanie Lekocevic/YouTube
marinahineva’/Flickr
Franek N/Flickr
Wondering what other one-of-a-kind natural wonders exist here in the Empire State? Then be sure to also read about how you can Visit Eternal Flame Falls Near Buffalo To Hike To A Waterfall With A Flame Inside Of It!
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Address: Cairo, NY, USA
