Kelp forests arose on the floor of the Pacific Ocean at least 32 million years ago, not 14-15 million years ago as previously thought. This calls into question the prevailing ideas about the evolution of their inhabitants, the press service of the University of California at Berkeley reported. Researchers have found that these important oceanic ecosystems appeared in the Pacific Ocean at the beginning of the Oligocene era, over 32 million years ago. The largest kelp forests are found in cold seas (Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, Nordic Seas), but in 2007 kelp forests were also discovered in tropical waters near Ecuador.