Researchers apparently uncovered one of the most ancient forests on the planet in the Arctic region, in Norway, estimated to be 400 million years old. Scientists also believe that these fossilized trees hold the key to one of the planet's most dramatic climate shifts in history.

The team of Chris Berry from the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences of Cardiff University, have identified these fossil forests located in Svalbard, which is an archipelago in Norway that is between the Arctic Ocean and the northern polar region.

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Berry explains that these fossil forests reveal the vegetation and landscape found on the equator some 380 million years ago, during a time when the first trees appeared on Earth.This fossil forest is also considered as a tropical forest that has been growing near the equator but a continental drift transferred these trees up north, according to researchers.

These ancient trees also appear unlike any tree on the planet today, where they have diamond patterned trunks along with needle leaves growing from flared branches.

As researchers examined these well preserved tree stumps, they classified them originating from the late Devonian period that lasted for 420 to 360 million years. Scientists consider this Svalbard forest as one of the oldest ever discovered, which also dates back almost the same time as another Devonian forest in Gilboa, New York.

Scientists attribute the Devonian period to a crucial event of massive reduction of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Theories involve how tree evolution contributed to the drop in carbon dioxide as vegetation was growing from small plants to larger forest trees. Berry also says that this huge drop in carbon dioxide is 15 times the present amount to current levels.

These ancient trees are also similar to the trees on Earth today, where they absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. However, these tropical trees did absorb more carbon dioxide before because only mosses existed as Earth's early plant life. Tree sized vegetation caused this dramatic drop in carbon dioxide since plants are evolving to build tissues and forming soils, says Berry.

This new study is published in the journal, Geology.

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