These Prehistoric Fossilized Trees Unearthed In Canada Are Straight Out Of A Dr. Seuss Book

“It’s a very Dr. Seuss-looking tree.”

Tim StonesiferA model of Sanfordiacaulis densifolia.

Researchers recently discovered fossils of a prehistoric tree “unlike any of those that live at the present” in New Brunswick, Canada.

This ancient, alien-like tree was given the name Sanfordiacaulis densifolia in a new study published in the scientific journal Current Biology.

The Discovery Of ‘Sanfordiacaulis Densifolia’

Two co-authors of the study, Olivia King and Matthew Stimson, unearthed the first Sanfordiacaulis densifolia fossil in a New Brunswick quarry in 2017, and in the years since, scientists have discovered four more. One of the specimens in particular is so well-preserved that experts have been able to reconstruct what the tree once looked like.

With a long, narrow trunk and a crown of leaves that may have been up to 18 feet in diameter, Sanfordiacaulis densifolia was so top-heavy it likely had to intertwine its branches with other nearby trees to stay upright. It grew below the canopy of taller trees surrounding it and stretched so wide in order to soak up as much sunlight filtering through the leaves above as possible.

“The way in which this tree produced hugely long leaves around its spindly trunk, and the sheer number over a short length of trunk, is startling,” said the study’s lead author, Robert Gastaldo of Colby College, in a statement.

Gastaldo compared the tree to “an upside-down toilet brush,” and King noted that it looked like “one of those truffula trees from The Lorax.”

As Gastaldo explains, he and his colleagues estimate that the Sanfordiacaulis densifolia had more than 250 leaves. In the fossilized specimens they studied, the leaves extended about six feet from the trunk, but they likely grew even longer.

Alan GrahamResearchers investigating the prehistoric Sanfordiacaulis densifolia fossil.

“This means that the ‘bottle brush’ had a dense canopy of leaves that extended at least [18 feet] around a trunk that was non-woody and only [six inches] in diameter,” Gastaldo said.

The spectacular preservation seen in the fossils is due to an earthquake that occurred about 350 million years ago. The quake caused the bank on which the plants stood to collapse into a lake, and the trees were immediately covered in mud and silt. Because of this rapid preservation while the foliage was still alive, the Sanfordiacaulis densifolia fossils are uniquely three-dimensional.

An ‘Unsuccessful Experiment’ In Plant Biology

One of the fossils includes both the trunk and crown of a Sanfordiacaulis densifolia, a rare occurrence that, when paired with the 3D nature of the tree’s remains, is allowing scientists to get a closer look at history than ever before.

“Any fossil tree with an intact crown is a rarity in the history of life,” Gastaldo said. “Having the crown leaves attached to a trunk, by itself, begs the questions what kind of plant is it, how is that plant organized, and is it some form that continues to the present, or is it outside of the ‘normal’ concept of a tree? All of these questions, and more, led to this multi-year endeavor.”

Tim StonesiferThe height of Sanfordiacaulis densifolia compared to the average human.

Sanfordiacaulis densifolia presents some of the earliest evidence of a smaller tree growing beneath a taller forest canopy, the researchers said. This evidence shows that life in the Early Carboniferous period was much more complex than previously believed and that the tree evolved during a time when plants were “experimenting” with various forms.

“We all have a mental concept of what a tree looks like, depending on where we live on the planet, and we have a vision of what is familiar,” Gastaldo said. “The fossil on which we report is unique and a strange growth form in the history of life. It is one of evolution’s experiments during a time when forest plants underwent biodiversification, and it is a form that seems to be short lived.”

Given that no tree alive today takes the same form as Sanfordiacaulis, it is safe to say, as Gastaldo does, that it was “an unsuccessful experiment.” That said, the discovery of this “Dr. Seuss-looking tree” offers fascinating insight into the history of life on planet Earth.

After reading about the discovery of this prehistoric tree fossil, learn about the Methuselah tree — the oldest tree in the world. Or, read about the manchineel tree, the world’s deadliest tree.