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Spectacular Fossil Forests Found In US Coalmine

Posted by kdawson on from the sixteen-tons dept.

Smivs passes along a report up on the BBC about the fossil forests found in coal mines in Illinois. "The [US-UK] group reported one discovery last year, but has since identified a further five examples. The ancient vegetation — now turned to rock — is visible in the ceilings of mines covering thousands of hectares. These were among the first forests to evolve on the planet, [according to] Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang... 'These are the largest fossil forests found anywhere in the world at any point in geological time. It is quite extraordinary to find a fossil landscape preserved over such a vast area; and we are talking about an area the size of [the British city of] Bristol.' The forests grew just a few million years apart some 300 million years ago; and are now stacked one on top of another."

3 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Here we go... by InvisblePinkUnicorn · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Cue the Old Testament historicity debate in 3... 2... 1...

  2. yo0 insensitiven clod! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    and its lon6 Term

  3. Offtopic, but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    IceWeasel for Windows [sourceforge.net]

    Why? Even the summary says that it's just a debranded version of Firefox (as was the original IceWeasel).

    While the original's rebranding was understandable from the point-of-view of its inclusion in (and consistency with the philosophy of) the Debian Linux distribution- whether or not you agree with that- I don't see the point of it for Windows at all. Just another unnecessary and confusing fork?