The ancient environments of Cairo and Gilboa were markedly different. Gilboa had waterlogged forests punctuated by catastrophic floods that displaced enormous quantities of sand. Cairo experienced a calmer environment with wet and dry periods. A final flood in Cairo most likely killed the trees of the forests, preserving them as a snapshot in time. Gilboa’s trees experienced a similar instantaneous event, but in this case the water helped bury the trees in sand, creating sandstone casts.
“In the Early Devonian, about 420 million years ago, the tallest plants were only a few centimeters tall. There were no leaves at this stage and all plants bore spores. About 30 “million years later, in the middle of the Devonian. By the Devonian, plants had evolved to the size of trees. Gilboa was the first place to make such a major discovery,” Ver Straeten explained.
Some of these fossil casts (the remains of the Gilboa fossil forests) are now on display at the Gilboa Museum, about 40 minutes northwest of Cairo. Gilboa was a thriving town in the late 19th century, but was evacuated and turned into a watershed in 1927 to supply fresh water to the growing New York City. It was during this process that paleontologists discovered around 40 unique tree fossils, propelling Gilboa onto the global paleontological scene.
“Our ancestors all lost their homes in Gilboa when the dam was built that flooded the town, but the good thing is that they found these Gilboa fossils. They generate a lot of information for the world because they are the first forests that live on Earth and absorbed carbon dioxide,” explained Kristen Wyckoff, fossil enthusiast, founder of the Gilboa Museum in 2005 and current vice president of the Gilboa Historical Society. “We are now among the oldest trees in the world.”
One tree in particular dominated the ancient fossil forests of Gilboa: the Eospermatopteris.