Carboniferous fossil forests

Abstract

Forests of Carboniferous age, first described in detail in the nineteenth century, are often illustrated in textbooks, but their ecological and evolutionary significance has been largely overlooked or, worse, misrepresented. It has often been thought that the standing fossil forests found rooted in coals represent relicts of the peat‐forming vegetation. Recent research has suggested that this is not always the case and that many of the standing trees represent an essentially non‐peat‐forming wetland (‘clastic swamp’) vegetation comprising a distinctive set of genera and species of plants. Recent investigation of several famous examples ‐ Weaklaw, Arran and Joggins as well as new examples such as Mary Lee and Table Head ‐ is throwing new light on the ecological and evolutionary significance of these fossil forests.