Researchers have unearthed a forest in northern China preserved under a layer of ash deposited 300 million years ago, the BBC reported.

Preservation of the forest was found west of the Inner Mongolian district of Wuda.

"It's like Pompeii," said study co-author Hermann Pfefferkorn of the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. "Pompeii gives us deep insight into Roman culture, but it doesn't say anything about Roman history in and of itself. But on the other hand, it elucidates the time before and the time after. This finding is similar. It's a time capsule and therefore it allows us now to interpret what happened before or after much better."

The researchers were able to "reconstruct" nearly 1,000 square meters of the forest's trees and plant distributions. The excavations sampled three sites across a large expanse that was covered with about a meter of ash.

Due to the pristine preservation of some of the plants, the team estimates the ash fell over the course of just a few days, felling and damaging some of the trees and plants under its weight but otherwise keeping them intact.

The team identified six groups of trees, ranging from low-lying tree ferns to now-extinct 25-meter trees Sigillaria and Cordaites, as well well-preserved specimens of another extinct group called Noeggerathiales.

(China.org.cn, CNTV February 24, 2012)

據英國廣播公司報道，研究人員在中國北部發現一片由一層火山灰3億年前掩埋的森林。

森林遺址發現于內蒙古烏達地區以西。

該研究的作者之一，來自美國賓夕法尼亞大學的赫爾曼?菲佛克隆說：“它猶如龐貝城。龐貝城讓我們深入了解了羅馬文化，但城中沒有體現出羅馬歷史和自身的歷史。但另一方面，它闡明了該時間前后的狀況。該項發現類似。它是一個時間倉，因此我們現在可以更好地解釋之前和之后發生的事情?！?/p>

研究人員“復原”了近1000平方米樹木和植被的分布情況。發掘工作挑選了一片寬闊地區的3處地點，該地區覆蓋著約1米厚的火山灰。

由于一些植物保存狀態原始，科研組估計，火山灰散落了僅幾天，壓壞了一些樹木和植被，然而在其它方面卻將它們完好地保存下來。

科研組辨認出了6類樹，有低矮的樹蕨，有現已滅絕的25米高的封印木和科達木，還有保存良好并已滅絕的匙葉目物種。