This story appeared in the May 2020 issue and was published on the web on April 17, 2020. Subscribe to Discover magazine for more stories like this. The article has since been updated.
1. I think that I shall never see an organism as vital as a tree. Without these woody, perennial members of the plant kingdom, we might still be squirming around the seafloor.
2. About 400 million years ago, early trees transformed terrestrial environments by reducing atmospheric carbon. The result: more hospitable ecosystems for marine animals experimenting with the landlubber life.
3. Researchers described one such inviting habitat in December 2019 in Current Biology: The find, the earliest forest in the fossil record, is roughly 385 million years old. The site included primitive, fernlike cladoxylopsids as well as species once thought to have evolved millions of years later.
4. Some of these more advanced varieties also had extensive ...
