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Yes, from that aspect it is a bit like claiming this oil reserve is the oldest ancient forest. Which is fascinating as before microbes that could break down li

by Zenst 7y ago

Yes, from that aspect it is a bit like claiming this oil reserve is the oldest ancient forest. Which is fascinating as before microbes that could break down lignin came about, tree's would not decompose. Tree's themselves came about when plants developed lignin and enabled a strong bark stem and to grow taller, fighting for the light resource. But there was no microbes to break down lignin, which is in wood. So trunks piled up until evolution saw a microbe that could and it thrived as it does today. Though before then, tree trunks would pile up and it is those piles that became buried and with that, cut of from the microbes that would break them down. It is from that window in Earth's history that was behind the coal and oil today. Still, a discernible root is a level of identification you will never get from any oil reserves. Coal however, well: https://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/fossil-tree-stumps-types.php https://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/fossil-tree-stumps-types.php - which is also around the same period in time. Not sure what to make of that.

dghughes 7y ago
I think there is more to it than all tree not decomposing due to lack of lignin digesting fungus. From what I've read the trees had to have fallen in an area of freshwater only it could not be saltwater or it would rot. Then again I'm no coal-ologist.
- Zenst 7y ago
  Yes, there are many factors at play environmentally beyond a lignin digesting fungus. Just the whole timeline and that aspect that makes one tree a fossil and another a fossil-fuel, is fascinating and the aspect that there seems like a cross-over period in which some trees of a time became coal and others became other forms of rock (yes coal is a rock, covering myself in case of any lurking coal-ologists :). Though trees in saltwater do not rot faster, kinda the opposite as the salt acts as a preserve. https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/460976/6-000-year-old-forest-rises-from-sea-Ancient-oaks-uncovered-as-storm-washes-beach-away https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/460976/6-000-year-old-... Makes you wonder what the planet did look like and maybe one day we will be able to work out were land masses and at what height and climate, that with coal and oil fields, see a picture of the forests that made that coal and oil. Though a quick google didn't jump out anything close.

by Zenst 7y ago

dghughes 7y ago

I think there is more to it than all tree not decomposing due to lack of lignin digesting fungus. From what I've read the trees had to have fallen in an area of freshwater only it could not be saltwater or it would rot. Then again I'm no coal-ologist.

Zenst 7y ago
Yes, there are many factors at play environmentally beyond a lignin digesting fungus. Just the whole timeline and that aspect that makes one tree a fossil and another a fossil-fuel, is fascinating and the aspect that there seems like a cross-over period in which some trees of a time became coal and others became other forms of rock (yes coal is a rock, covering myself in case of any lurking coal-ologists :). Though trees in saltwater do not rot faster, kinda the opposite as the salt acts as a preserve. https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/460976/6-000-year-old-forest-rises-from-sea-Ancient-oaks-uncovered-as-storm-washes-beach-away https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/460976/6-000-year-old-... Makes you wonder what the planet did look like and maybe one day we will be able to work out were land masses and at what height and climate, that with coal and oil fields, see a picture of the forests that made that coal and oil. Though a quick google didn't jump out anything close.