Prehistoric Trees and Fossils

Trees existed for tens of millions of years before the first true conifers appeared. The earliest known trees appeared during the Devonian Period (390-385 m.y.a.) with extensive forests already established by the Carboniferous Period (359–299 m.y.a.).
"Earth's earliest forest" existed around 390 million years ago and was found in 2023 - a "fossil forest" of Cladoxylopsida and Sphenopsida (horsetails) looking like modern-day ferns, known as Calamophyton, standing 6½ to 18 ft tall, in the Hangman Sandstone Formation, which is 1700m thick in its folded, uplifted sandstone structure at Glenthore Beach, Combe Martin, North Portland, Exmoor, Devon - the landmass then was at the Equator, the land then being in the continental area known as Laurentia, in the Emsian Period. These trees are thought to have created river channels that helped develop plants and habitat to evolve life on Earth (Davies et al., 2024 ; Earth.com, 2024).
The previous oldest was the Cairo Fossil Forest in New York State, US. Discovered in 2009 after being preserved beneath the ground of an abandoned quarry, the trees existed around 385 million years ago and likely belonged to the Archaeopteris group, similar to modern ferns (Live Science, 2025). These were some of the first trees to absorb and lock away carbon dioxide, changing the composition of the atmosphere. Towards the end of the Devonian period, these trees likely grew to a height of over 20 metres (Gess and Berry, 2024).

The oldest volcanic trees!

A 377 million year old tree fossil has been found near Torbay in a protected global geopark, which may be the world’s oldest evidence of trees on volcanic islands, sparking international scientific interest. The remains have been removed for scientific research due to being situated in rocks at base of cliffs and in danger of being washed away by incoming tides. The tree fossils looked a lot like palm trees but have no relationship to present palms. (English Riviera Geopark, 2025)

Examining fossils in Torbay. Frame from YouTube video.

It was reported in Feb 2024 that a 350 million year old ancient forest has been uncovered in New Brunswick, Canada of a unique 3D crown shape at Sanford Quarry in the Canadian Maritime Area. It has been named Sanfordiacaulis densifolia and had an unusual spiky trunk. This fossil find in the rock determined that they were 10 metres high with the leaves of 200 fronds resembling tropical tree ferns today. Scientists have determined that there was an earthquake that buried parts of the forest in rock, hence they have survived.
A 42,000-year-old kauri tree preserved in a New Zealand bog contains 1,700 years of growth rings, providing valuable insights into the Laschamp event, a brief reversal and weakening of Earth’s magnetic field 42,000 years ago. Spanning 1,700 years, the rings of the tree offer a detailed record of environmental conditions during the magnetic field's collapse, creating a unique opportunity to study the relationship between geomagnetic reversals and environmental shifts, so that we can improve our understanding of Earth's climatic history. (Cooper et al., 2021)

450 million years ago in the Ordovician Era, before trees evolved, the Earth's landscape appears to have been inhabited by Prototaxites, a species similar to what we know as fungi today.
Research has suggested that Prototaxites was neither a plant nor a fungus, but rather a unique, extinct life form. (Loron et al., 2026)
These giant fungi forests were some 29 feet tall, and fossils have been found around the world. "Zangarmarsh" in the video game "World of Warcraft" provides a likely appearance of these forests.

For millions of years, Ginkgo thrived across Laurasia, the northern supercontinent. In the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event approximately 66 million years ago, most of the flora and fauna of the Dinosaur Age were wiped out. However, Ginkgo persevered and gradually reduced in population over following millenia. By the end of the Pleistocene Epoch (Ice Age), Ginkgo was reduced to isolated populations in China. They almost became extinct, but their natural resilience to the elements helped them to survive.
Carbon impressions of Ginkgo leaves have been found in fossilised rocks from the Permian Period (290–248 million years ago). Some of the best fossils are from the Jurassic Strata of North Yorkshire.
The Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco), native to the Canary Islands, can be considered a "living fossil" due to being a Tertiary relict species – from one of the oldest ecosystems in the world! (Not to be confused with the Dragon's Blood Tree, of Socotra, Yemen)

During the last Ice Age, which peaked around 20,000–25,000 years ago, many trees survived in isolated "refugia" - warmer, unglaciated southern areas - and in rare, scattered northern pockets. Conifers like pine and spruce were the hardiest survivors, with DNA evidence showing some persisted near Scandinavian coastlines and in tundra, while temperate forests existed in Spain, Italy, and the Balkans (Parducci et al., 2012). Britain was re-colonised by trees some 12,000 years ago.

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