When triceratops and velociraptor stalked the forests of the Cretaceous , at a time when flowering plants were just beginning to come forth , the planet was still dominated by coniferous tree and pine tree . Now researchershave uncoveredwhat is believed to be the oldest fossil of a pine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ever key out , a flyspeck piece of oxford gray dating to around 140 million age ago , which shows that their evolution was driven – and the landscape overlook – by intense forest fires .
The discovery is helping the researchers to answer questions about how pine trees get into existence . The fossils are approximately 11 million years older than the old record - bearer , suggesting that the plants evolve much earlier than expected , and the fact that they were found within oxford gray heavily suggests that their evolution has been intricately linked to wildfire for tens of millions of days . This is digest by the fact that the researchers were even able to depend within the fogy to see duct that would have conduct extremely inflammable resin , a feature still present in modern pine .
Pine tree forests , such as the Scotchman ’s pine one get a line here , still dominate the Northern Hemisphere . Israel Hervas Bengochea / Shutterstock
The resin is thought to aid wildfires , which are needed to allow the pine cones to germinate . This gives the seeds an vantage , because not only is the charred forest assoil of understory botany – and thus competition – but the ash also increases the fertility of the soil , providing life-sustaining nutrient for the developing seedlings . The buddy-buddy , dead tissue surrounding the adult tree diagram trunks forbid them from being damaged as the fires on the ground rage . During the Cretaceous , when the fogey date to , the oxygen levels were much higher than today meaning that wildfire are thought to have been far more frequent and intense .
Botanists have long been nonplus as to why pines are so well adapted to wood fires , such as this one in a scot ’s pine forest . Viesinsh / Shutterstock
“ Pines are well adapted to fire today , ” Royal Holloway ’s Dr. Howard Falcon - Lang , who get word the fossil and coauthored the newspaper published in the journalGeology , toldBBC News . “ The fossils show that wildfires raged through the early pine wood and probably form the phylogenesis of this important Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . ” The fogy specimens , which were encase in the rock-and-roll gypsum , and were extract by dissolving the rock in acid , are thought to be from tree diagram that resembled the modern - day Scottish pine ( Pinus sylvestris ) , today found across much of northern Europe and Russia .
Despite only being around half a cm long ( 0.02 inches ) , the researchers were able to tell a surprising amount about the ancient tree . From the small pits on the fossils surface , they are able-bodied to discern that the tree had duplicate pine needles , and as mentioned , by looking within the preserved twig are able-bodied to see resin ducts . find in a quarry in Nova Scotia , Canada , the researchers design on return to the website to see if they can uncover more charcoal fossils of other pines .
