In early 2024, the oldest fossil forest ever discovered, dating back 390 million years, was discovered in southwest England
Exceptionally preserved plant fossils of 350 million-year-old strange bushy trees have been discovered in southeastern Canada. In the UK, researchers have discovered a fossil forest of small, palm-like trees and arthropod tracks dating back to the Middle Devonian. Petrified trees discovered by chance in southwest England belong to the oldest known forest on Earth, a new study has found. The 390-million-year-old fossils displace the 386-million-year-old Gilboa Fossil Forest in New York state as the oldest known forest in the world.
Hit parade of “living fossils”: these 14 species have not changed in millions or even hundreds of millions of years
A living fossil is a species that has not changed significantly over millions of years and closely resembles its ancestors found in the fossil record. Charles Darwin coined the term “living fossil” in 1859 to describe living species that still looked like their ancestors millions of years ago and were often the last surviving lineage. Anatomically, these species tend to appear unchanged, although genetically, the species are constantly evolving. Plate tectonic activity has had a profound effect on the rate of evolution of coelacanths throughout their 400-million-year history.