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Forest discovered in southwest England cliffs changed the timeline of terrestrial life by revealing, in the Devonian, the oldest known record and the moment when primitive trees began to transform the Earth.
Forest is the word that now helps to recount a decisive chapter in the planet’s history. Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Cardiff identified fossilized remains of a forest in Devon and Somerset, southwest England, dated to approximately 390 million years ago, with trunks preserved in their growth position and a large amount of plant material scattered across the terrain. The study showed that these were not isolated plants, but a dense and structured system, already capable of continuously occupying the landscape.
According to the Olhar Digital portal, the detail that transforms the discovery into something greater than a simple geological record is that this forest marks the point where primitive trees began to act as biogeomorphic agents. In other words, they were not just living on Earth: they were already beginning to interfere with the soil, erosion, sediment transport, and even the behavior of rivers, helping to shape the landscape long before the emergence of modern forests.
The strongest detail lies in the age and the leap that changes the chronology of forests
The most impactful aspect of the find is its age. The English forest was dated to approximately 390 million years ago, during the Middle Devonian, and now holds the title of the oldest known fossilized forest on Earth. Before this, the title was attributed to a site in New York, dating back about 386 million years.
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This advancement of a few million years may seem small at first glance, but it is enormous in evolutionary terms. It pushes back the moment when forest ecosystems began to consolidate on dry land and forces science to review more precisely when arboreal vegetation ceased to be a biological novelty and became a dominant force in the organization of terrestrial environments.
The curious twist is that the oldest known forest was not made of trees like those of today
The image of a forest usually brings to mind tall canopies, thick trunks, and deep roots, but the scenario revealed in England was quite different. The dominant vegetation was composed of trees from the Calamophyton group, described by researchers as very primitive forms, resembling tree ferns, with thinner trunks and branched structures covered by small branches. They were between 2 and 4 meters tall, much shorter than the large trees that define a mature forest today.
It is precisely this difference that makes the find so revealing. The oldest forest on Earth did not resemble the Amazon, nor modern temperate forests. It represented an intermediate phase, where plant life was still experimenting with ways to grow, occupy space, and establish itself on continents that were being transformed by the presence of the first trees.
The broader context shows that these trees began to change the physical functioning of the planet
The study highlights that the evolution of trees and forests during the Devonian profoundly altered the terrestrial biosphere and physical environments. At the English site, the preserved sediments and remains indicate that this vegetation already influenced erosion processes, material retention, and landscape stabilization, showing that the appearance of forests had a direct effect on the dynamics of rivers and topography.
This gives the discovery a weight that goes beyond paleobotany. When trees begin to actively interact with the surface, they cease to be merely a consequence of evolution and start acting as an engine for the planet’s transformation. This is the point where the forest stops being just a biological setting and becomes a central piece of Earth’s natural engineering.
Why this forest can change the understanding of the origin of modern ecosystems
By revealing such an ancient forest, the study helps to reposition the origin of processes that today seem basic in terrestrial ecosystems. The formation of more complex soils, sediment retention, changes in river courses, and the creation of more diverse habitats may have begun to gain strength precisely in environments like this, long before the arrival of the more sophisticated trees that would come later.
For this reason, the finding is also valuable for understanding Earth’s own history as a system. The presence of these trees indicates that forests were already beginning to reorganize the interface between the biosphere, atmosphere, and continental surface, paving the way for profound ecological changes that would later sustain richer and more complex ecosystems. This is an inference consistent with the biogeomorphic role described by the researchers.
What still needs to be understood about this 390-million-year-old forest
Although the discovery has already redefined the chronological record, there are still open questions about the total extent of this forest, its complete composition, and the exact degree of diversity it supported. The fossils found are strong enough to confirm a structured forest ecosystem, but the broader ecological picture still depends on new field analyses and comparison with other Devonian deposits.
It will also be important to better understand how this forest connected to other ancient environments in Europe and to what extent similar formations may have existed in still understudied regions. The discovery shows that geologically known sites can still hide decisive chapters in the history of terrestrial life.
Ultimately, what reappeared fossilized in England was not just a collection of ancient trunks. It was the portrait of a forest at a time when primitive trees were beginning to leave permanent marks on the planet. By pushing the origin of known forests back to 390 million years ago, the finding not only corrects a record: it illuminates the moment when Earth began to be redesigned by organisms that, for the first time, were already able to alter the landscape on a real scale.
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