40,000 year old fossil forest revealed after storm

Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) shared photos of the ancient forest revealed after the recent storm, located at Badger Beach in Narawntapu National Park, Interesting Engineering reported on October 8. Although the event is very rare and the tide would quickly bury the forest under sand, the sighting still attracts a lot of interest in the types of trees growing in the forest and what type of fossil they are.

In a photo posted by PWS on Facebook, the remnants of the forest look like piles of algae from a distance, but are actually tree bark protruding through the sand. The intact bark mixed with rocks is part of an Ice Age forest, meaning these ancient trees are tens of thousands of years old. Although some people believe that this is a petrified forest, some experts disagree. They speculate that even in fossil form, the forest is still intact and closer to its natural state.

PWS stated that the exposed forest has both petrified and intact traces. In both cases, lack of oxygen causes the wood to decompose. However, in the case of petrification, organic material turns into stone. According to PWS, the forest is about 40,000 years old. Most likely it is an ancient tea tree forest.

In March 2024, researchers found a fossil forest with many low, palm-like trees that existed in the mid-Devonian period 390 million years ago in what is now southwest England. This forest exists longer than the Gilboa fossil forest in New York state, USA, dating back 386 million years.

Famous for its open fields, coastal heaths, grasslands and marsupials such as kangaroos, Narawntapu National Park attracts 62,000 visitors each year.