Word: fossils
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Despite their great age, the stumps, logs and leaves are astonishingly well preserved. "This fossil forest is not petrified, turned to stone by minerals entering and replacing the wood cell structure," says Neil McMillan, of the Geological Survey of Canada, who discovered a similar but much smaller site 30 years ago on nearby Ellesmere Island. Instead, shallow burial in the Arctic soil has left the forest in a mummified state. As a result, says Basinger, "you can saw the wood. You can burn it." Indeed, during an expedition to the site in July, he actually brewed...
...fossil forest should also fuel some important scientific research. "You can see a prehistoric forest in a growth condition: how dense it was, how the trees grew, how productive it was," Basinger says. "It gives us a much better idea of the plants populating the high latitudes (at that time), the kind of environment there, and how they relate to living forms today...
First to spot the fossil forest was Paul Tudge, a helicopter pilot who has been ferrying Geological Survey scientists to and from remote sites on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere for years. He had once seen McMillan's fossil forest, and on a flight to Axel Heiberg in July 1985, Tudge recalls, "I saw the same sort of stumps, but many, many of them." He later returned to the site, landed nearby, collected samples and brought them to Basinger, who immediately began planning this summer's expedition. Aided by a grant from the Geological Survey and accompanied by another fossil-forest...
Discovery of the fossil forest may have an economic spin-off. When resins given off by these ancient trees are buried 6,000 ft. underground, according to McMillan, they are eventually converted into very good oil. The resins, he believes, are the major source of oil found in the Beaufort Sea and elsewhere in the Arctic. "The more we know of the climate and vegetation," he says, "the better we'll be able to assess the oil and gas potential there...
...reluctant to render a final verdict. If additional Protoavis specimens bolster Chatterjee's interpretation, it would indicate that birds appeared and diversified much earlier than scientists had believed. "Paleontology is like dealing with a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle for which you only have 15," says Ostrom. "This fossil gives you another 15 or 20 pieces of the puzzle...