Image Source: ORISSAPOST

Scientists have discovered remnants of the world’s oldest fossil forest — an extensive network of trees around 386 million years old — in a sandstone quarry in the US.

The fossil forest in Cairo would have spread from New York all the way into Pennsylvania and beyond, according to the researchers from Binghamton University, and New York State Museum in the US.

The forest is around 2 or 3 million years older than what was thought to be the world’s oldest forest at Gilboa, also in New York State and around 40 kilometers away from the Cairo site.

The finding, published in the journal Current Biology, throws new light on the evolution of trees and the transformative role they played in shaping the world we live in today.