NEW YORK, April 20 (UPI) -- Researchers say the fossil of an ancient tree uncovered in Upstate New York provides insight into Earth's earliest forests.
A report by Binghamton University biologist William Stein, published in the journal Nature, says the fossil puts to rest "speculation as to what trees might have looked like millions of years ago."
The fossil, found near the Gilboa Dam in Schoharie County, is more than 12 feet long and offers the first evidence of how big and complex the trees were and what their tops looked like.
Stein and his colleagues say the trees -- which predate the earliest dinosaurs by about 135 million years -- were likely more than 26 feet tall, with a system of frond-like but leafless branches at their very tops.
He said possible modern-day descendants of the trees include ferns and horsetails.
