Scientists discovered well-preserved fossils of an ancient tree that was exceptionally bushy. The experts believed it was an example of evolutionary experimentation in plants.
New Tree Fossils Discovered in Canada
According to a new study, strange bushy tree plant fossils with exceptionally well-preserved fossils have been found in southeast Canada. The old trees could be examples of evolutionary experimentation because they are unlike anything scientists have ever seen.
Nearly flawless impressions of the trees' trunks and foliage may be seen in sediments at the bottom of what was once a lake, caused by an earthquake that uprooted the trees and buried them in a mud bath 350 million years ago. In 2017, geologists found the first petrified tree while working at a quarry in New Brunswick. Since then, they have discovered four additional almost identical specimens.
"We were gobsmacked," study lead author Robert Gastaldo, a professor emeritus of geology at Colby College in Maine, explained in an email. "It is an anomaly to find a fossil plant of tree size that has leaves preserved [and] attached to the trunk in a crown configuration."
Typically, the fossil record only contains the trunks of extinct trees. However, the most recent finding shows a compact canopy of about 250 leaves clustered around the upper 30 inches (75 centimeters) of a slender, unbranched tree trunk that measured approximately 8.7 feet (2.7 meters) in height. As per the study, the leaves spread out from the trunk in "tightly compressed spirals," reaching a maximum length of 9.8 feet (3 meters).
The Sanfordiacaulis trees most likely developed this spiral arrangement to optimize the quantity of sunlight that the leaves could absorb for photosynthesis. These plants may be the first of smaller trees growing beneath the canopy of higher trees, as shown by their reduced height.
According to Gastaldo, the rebuilding of these plants "distorts our sense of how trees are organized and grow."
They share similarities with, but differ greatly from, two tree models found in today's tropics, the expert said, referring to a few species of tree ferns, gymnosperms (plants that have exposed seeds), and flowering plants. Nonetheless, many contemporary plants have fewer leaves in their crowns; for example, tree ferns and palm trees have between 15 and 20 leaves.
Sanfordiacaulis Resembles Dr. Seuss' The Lorax Trees
Olivia King, co-author of the study and a research associate at the New Brunswick Museum who found the fossils said the tree was similar to Dr. Seuss's most popular work, The Lorax.
The Lorax are trees with slender trunks and large pom-poms. At the top is this enormous crown, which narrows and shrinks into this tiny trunk.
"It's a very Dr. Seuss-looking tree. It's a weird and wonderful idea of what this thing could look like," she said.
However, the researchers noted that the Sanfordiacaulis's dominance was brief. Matthew Stimson, co-author of the study, stated that they never saw this plant architecture again.
He pointed out that it flourished during the early Carboniferous, a transitional period at the end of the Paleozoic Era when land-dwelling plants and animals began diversifying.
A species' versatility and capacity to adapt to a wide range of environments and situations is frequently used to gauge its success in the highly experimental field of evolution. There is evidence of a "failed experiment of science and evolution" in the unusual set of tree fossils. He added that they were beginning to see the life that existed 350 million years ago.
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