World's oldest forest discovered near New York by US scientists

The forest was found near the Catskill mountain range in New York, USA

Scientists at a university in the US say they have discovered the world's oldest forest.

The team already knew the ancient forest existed, but this is the first time it was properly investigated to find out the ages of plants and trees growing there.

The forest had evidence of some very early plants being there - some of these plants would have even been seen by dinosaurs.

The teams, from the University of Binghamton in the US and the University of Cardiff in Wales, think the forest used to spread around 400 kilometres, which is about 250 miles.

How do you 'discover' an ancient forest?

Experts from Wales and the US worked together to find the ancient forest

The scientists discovered the forest at the bottom of a quarry in a place called Cairo, in the state of New York.

The mapping of the area started five years ago, back in 2019.

By looking at the fossils of different plants and trees found in the area, they discovered that it's the oldest forest found on Earth so far. Other extremely old forests include the Amazon rainforest and the Yakushima Forest in Japan.

The Amazon likely formed over 56 million years ago

Their discovery involves the study of palaeobotany.

Paleo means old, or ancient, and botany is the study of plants - so it means studying ancient plants.

What plants do you find in an ancient forest?

Unlike most of the trees we see today, the ancient trees seen in this forest would not have reproduced by releasing seeds that grow into a tree.

Many of the fossilised trees found in this forest would have reproduced using spores.

You might recognise that word from learning about fungi - which spread around and multiply by sending spores into the air.

Other plants you might know that reproduce with spores are ferns - they're also ancient plants