Cave near Chicago full of ancient wonders

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Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I had never thought of Chicago as a centre for fossle finding Shocked

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Quote:

Cave Near Chicago Full of Ancient Wonders

North America's oldest conifer tree and some ancient scorpion parts are among the fossil treasures found in a newly discovered cave in Illinois.

The new discovery also unearthed fossils of plants that may be new to science and revealed evidence of prehistoric forest fires.

Scientists date the specimens to nearly 315 million years ago, according to initial findings presented last month at the regional meeting of the Geological Society of America in Lawrence, Kan.

"I've never seen anything like this before," said Roy Plotnick, a paleontologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who discovered the cave with students on a field trip to a site two hours outside of Chicago. "The limestone that forms the cave is 450 million years old, but that's not the interesting part of the cave. The preservation inside the cave is what's fascinating."

What is of interest to Plotnick and his colleagues are the well-preserved bits of plants and insects that have been cushioned in the cave and protected from the elements.

Much of the biological treasure is preserved as charcoal, which researchers assume is a sign that the ancient trees were burned in fires.

"This is a glimpse into a new window to the past," said Royal Holloway University of London paleobotonist Andrew Scott, who is researching samples from the cave.

Additional details of the most fascinating discoveries in the cave include:

Needles of a conifer tree, 2 million years older than any conifer previously described Nearly pristine plant spores of lycopods, the main coal-forming plants of the period Evidence of a general drying trend in the area.

The cave, which geologists estimate runs underground for miles, could provide scientists with years of research material.

Plotnick's cave is one of two recent sightings of ancient plants in Illinois. A coal mine near Danville, detailed in the May issue of the journal Geology, houses a 300-million-year-old fossilized forest. While the mine is filled with evidence of ancient wetlands, the cave also holds biological deposits from dryer environments that appear to be about 3 million years older than the plant fossils found in the mine.

"Their discovery, and ours, show how much there still is to find in supposedly well-known places like Illinois," Plotnick told LiveScience.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070505/sc_livescience/cavenearchicagofullofancientwonders

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:38 pm

I'm a fossil Shocked

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:39 pm

^^^ naah...you only look old, that doesn�t mean you are ancient Wink

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:02 pm

Damn! Time to move, they've discovered my lair.

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:06 pm

It truly amazes me that we are exploring the skies above and destroying each other below and yet we truly know so little about our own world. What truly scares me is that in the process of destroying ourselves in senseless wars and violence we could destroy archives of the past such as this one.

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:44 pm

Reprob8 wrote:

Damn! Time to move, they've discovered my lair.

R8, any chance we could have the next mid-America meet here?

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 3:47 pm

My name is Mubo N'gwana from Nigeria. My uncle's body was recently found in a Cave Near Chicago Full of Ancient Wonders, just before he died 450 million years ago he imparted to a secret about some money in an account at the Central Bank of Nigeria. This money has been earning interest and is now worth $640Z (640 Zillion US dollars) and is kept in a trunk......

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 10:40 pm

slowfreddie wrote:

is kept in a trunk......

That should be a fossilised trunkbox. Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 23 Oct 2006 Posts: 63

Danville? That's nowhere NEAR Chicago! 135-150 miles away! I'm closer to it. Its only 90 miles from me

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 2:57 am

I thought from the title that The Stones had booked a gig there. Laughing

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