The Art of Business

Oldest Forest in New York

When I heard about the discovery of the world’s oldest trees were found near the Gilboa Dam in Schoharie County, New York , I just had to take time off from my studies as a paleontologist and book a flight to New York. These oldest trees, of course, were found in an area recorded as the home to Earth’s oldest forest. The region has yielded a tremendous tree trunk from the Devonian era which means they are approximately 400 million years old.

After I got settled in one of the Four Star New York Hotels , I wasted no time and immediately rented a car and drove to the area surrounding the Gilboa Dam. Paleobotanists have been studying these trunks and can only guess at what the tops of the trees looked like. A giant fern, maybe? Or something like a modern palm tree? There has been plenty of speculation and a couple of imaginative renderings, but there really is no true data to back up any of these theories or speculations. But, I do understand the enthusiasm to try anyway.

This is why I took time off: a couple of years ago, some researchers at the New York State Museum called to report the discovery of what they thought to be an ‘unusual’ specimen, a fossil complete with an extensive trunk system and a crown attached. When I heard that, I literally started to salivate. The fossil is more than 12 feet long and reveals just how complex the trees really were and revealed an excellent example of the top part, the aerial portion. They look remarkably like the fern tree.

These trees predate the earliest dinosaurs by 135 million years and were more than 26 feet tall with a system of frond-like, but leafless branches at the very tops. One reason I’m so fascinated by these trees is they were apart of the ‘forestation’, the original greening of the earth. Has I arrived to the area which this oldest forest in the world was discovered, I was humbled and in awe at being here where earth got her first start.

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