"Weird ancient tree from before dinosaurs found in Canadian quarry"

February 7, 2024 8:54 PM

From the CBC article: "What it really does look like is one of those truffula trees from The Lorax," said Olivia King, one of the researchers that discovered the fossil. She referred to a famous children's picture book by Dr. Seuss that features fantastic, colourful trees decimated to produce clothing called "thneeds."
posted by sardonyx (10 comments total)

Good article.
Mad props to the Paleolithic.
posted by neuron at 9:23 PM on February 7 [1 favorite]

🌴👬
?
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"An image from the study shows the tree heights of different fossil plants found before, during and after Sandfordiacaulis."

Note that the humans are for scale, not historical accuracy.
posted by clavdivs at 10:02 PM on February 7 [2 favorites]

Humans had scales back then?
posted by flabdablet at 11:04 PM on February 7

The lizard people walk among us today...
posted by Metacircular at 12:08 AM on February 8 [1 favorite]

Still not as old as sharks. (From a meme about how old sharks are--fossils dating back 450 million years--older than trees, older than Saturn's rings, etc).

Still, it is mind boggling to think that we can recreate the (weird) shape of a tree that existed 350 million years ago.
posted by eye of newt at 12:37 AM on February 8 [1 favorite]

The very first sharks were different enough from today's that you might not recognize them as sharks if you saw one. Pelagic apex predator was not their niche until a long time after they emerged.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 12:49 PM on February 8

Very cool; thank you for posting this.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:59 PM on February 8 [1 favorite]

Pelagic apex predator

gotta run, time to start a new band!!!


srsly, so cool. I love trees, especially weird old ones!
posted by supermedusa at 1:06 PM on February 8 [2 favorites]

I don't know if humans had scales, maybe triple beams.

but I have to admit the lorlax would make a interesting garnish for a g&t.
posted by clavdivs at 2:02 PM on February 8

Wait, when were dinosaurs found in Canadian quarry? Long enough ago for things from before then to be ancient??
posted by Dysk at 12:09 AM on February 9