Discovery of 20million years old fossilized tree.

Greek scientists have discovered a 20 million year old tree in lesbos. The fossilized tree was surprisingly intact with branches and root making it one of the rare fossil found.

Lesbos is located in the north-eastern Aegean sea. It is about 1,633 km² in area. The Lesbos has a petrified forest of about 15,000 hectare which is under the protected site of UNESCO. It is formed after a volcanic eruption occurred 20 million years ago, damaging islands subtropical forest ecosystem and covered the entire area with lava and ash. Professor Nikos Zouros said that it is the first time when a tree has been spotted in such good condition ever since it’s excavation began in 1995, who was the professor in Museum of Natural History of Petrified Forest lesbos.

For those who are unware of what petrification is, it is process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried in water-saturated sediment or volcanic ash. In this case it is volcanic ash. Due to this the ash covered the entire tree and avoiding environmental damages and also from decaying by decomposing agent. So the forest where it got Petrified is called petrified forest.

This ever fossilized tree was spotted at this petrified forest formed millions of years ago by lava and ash on eastern Mediterranean island. It was found during an road work near that area. The fossilized tree, about 19 metres long, it was completed covered with volcanic ash hence preventing it and also long with wood some leaves and fruits were found. They also found bones of the animal near the tree, maybe they were there when volcano erupted.

Zouros said “It is a unique find. It is preserved in excellent condition and from studying the fossilized wood we will be able to identify the type of plant it comes from,”. He also said that various forests are being discovered that existed between 17 and 20 million years ago on Lesbos. They are trying to reconstruct the ecosystem that existed during that period with these recovering’s.