World’s oldest forest fossils

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world’s oldest fossilised forest was uncovered in Somerset last week. We head to palaeobotanist, Dr Christopher Berry’s, lab at Cardiff University to learn about these cladoxylopsids. They lived 390 million years ago and although they are not the ancestors of today’s trees, they reveal some extraordinary evolutionary secrets.

Also, Marnie speaks to Dr Chris Thorogood of the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens about his new book Pathless Forest: The Quest to Save the World’s Largest Flowers. Called “Rafflesia” plants and found in the remotest parts of South East Asia, their flowers burst from the rain forest floor the size of pumpkins and are critically endangered. Chris talks of his world of extreme fieldwork and hair-raising expeditions, braving leeches, lizards and lethal forest swamps, to discover the rarest of rare blooms.

Plus, the Wildlife Trust’s Making Friends with Molluscs campaign starts today, and I’m sure many gardeners will declare this an impossible task! We visit some allotments in Bristol to find out how people are managing slug and snail populations. And chat to Brian Eversham from the Trust of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, who explains why these garden creatures should be considered our friends, not foes.

And finally, Dr Stewart Husband from last week’s programme returns to answer more of your burning questions about your tap water.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
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0:41.0	Hello, you're listening to BBC Inside Science, first broadcast on the 14th of March, 2024.
0:48.8	Right now is that time when the dormant green world around us starts to transform.
0:54.0	So that's where inside science is looking for inspiration this week.
0:58.0	Over the next half hour, expect the science of the oldest tree, the biggest flower and the most hated predator.
1:05.0	We'll be traveling from inhospitable forests on the other side of the world
1:09.0	to very hospitable allotments in Bristol and 390 million years back in time.
1:15.0	Plus following last week's programme, we received lots more of your tap water questions which
1:19.7	we'll tackle at the end of the show.
1:22.2	But first, you may have come across this in the news
1:24.6	last week. Fossils have been found near Minehead in North Devon, and not just any
1:29.7	old fossils, the oldest fossilized forest. These tree remains offer us a snapshot of when
1:36.9	plants first conquered the barren rocky surface of the earth. But why aren't they
1:41.9	still here? And what secrets can they reveal about the trees
	...

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