Friday, May 16, 2014

The Oldest Trees on Earth

Location:   Gilboa, New York
Year:   380,000,000 years ago

380 million years ago, the Town of Gilboa, not far from Albany, was a tropical paradise on the shore of an ancient sea. 

The township was founded in 1848. It was a manufacturing town. The town's cotton mill was a major contributor to the early local economy. It was destroyed by a flood in 1869.

In 1870, workers blasting a site for a stone quarry found fossilized remains of tree stumps. In 2004, the tops and fronds of the trees were discovered and, in 2007, the fern-like trees, named Wattieza, were pronounced the oldest known trees on earth.


 

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