The fossilized tree is 19.5 meters long and still has almost all branches and roots. At the site where it was found, research has been conducted into the forest that stood there millions of years ago for 25 years.
According to Zouros, the find is ‘unique’ to the island. The tree was covered with a thick layer of ash and lava after a volcanic eruption 17 to 20 million years ago, along with the rest of Lesbos.
150 logs and stumps
Zouros has been conducting research on Lesvos for decades. “The more we discover here, the better we understand what nature and the climate looked like at the time,” says the researcher at The Guardian. In addition to the tree, the team of archaeologists also found 150 trunks and stumps.
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The English sustainability professor Iain Stewart of the University of Plymouth calls the discovery of his Greek colleague a ‘unique insight into our history’. According to him, that insight is desperately needed, because our earth is warming so quickly.
‘What awaits us’
“There was a world even warmer than a greenhouse world at the time,” says Stewart. “What we learn from that may be an indication of what to expect if we do not act on the emergency of climate change.”
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