A team of researchers has found remnants of a forest lost 22 million years ago on an artificial island in the Panama Canal. The find consists of 121 petrified wood specimens of a species typical of mangrove regions.
The research was led by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. The fossils belong to a neverbeforeseen tree species called Sonneratioxylon barrocoloradoensis.
- Petrified wood was found on Barro Colorado Island in the middle of the Panama Canal;
- Radiometric dating of the forest revealed that it originated 22.79 million years ago in the Lower Miocene;
- Based on the fossils, it was calculated that the average height of the trees was 25 meters, but they could grow up to 40 meters high, much higher than today's mangroves.
Because of its size, researchers call it megaflora and it is believed that it was part of a huge mangrove forest in the period when Panama was not yet connected to South America, and was connected to North America. North of a narrow peninsula with intense volcanic activity.
The end of the mangrove forest
It was violent volcanism that led to the end of this forest. As the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates collided, volcanic activity intensified to the point that the entire landscape of Panama changed.
Studies of the wood and the deposit in which it was found suggest that the forest was once buried by a blanket of mud and volcanic material that flowed down the side of a volcano. Due to the high concentration of silica and the lack of oxygen, the wood was unable to decompose and was preserved for millions of years.
The construction of large infrastructure often destroys relics of a distant past. However, sediment removal for the expansion of the Panama Canal has revealed several discoveries, including the 22millionyearold petrified forest.
Source: Olhar Digital.