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Ash-Covered Forest Is 'Permian Pompeii'
from Nature News
An ancient swampy forest full of long-extinct plant species has been brought to life through
analyses of well-preserved fossils entombed in a layer of volcanic ash. Although many of the
species are already known to science, the eruption that smothered the tropical forest in what is
now northern China created a time capsule that reveals an almost unprecedented level of detail
about the region's flora, scientists say.
Palaeoecologists can usually only infer the richness of an ancient forest ecosystem by piecing
together fossils of plant fragments of varying ages. Only when broad areas are preserved in situ
in a geological instant can researchers get a true picture of the composition and ecology of the
forest, says Hermann Pfefferkorn, a palaeoecologist at the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia.
Although floods can cover wide swathes of landscape with sediment in one fell swoop, they
often bring in organisms from other areas and wash local inhabitants away. The most reliable
preservation, Pfefferkorn suggests, comes from a smothering layer of volcanic ash.
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