The trees looked like a cross between a fern and a palm tree.
During an expedition to the Norwegian archipelago of Spitsbergen (a polar archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean), British scientists discovered the remnants of a real rainforest, according to the journal Geology.
The discovered trees, which over millions of years have turned into fossil coal beds, were typical representatives of the equatorial flora of the Devonian period (419-358 million years ago) and looked like a cross between a fern and a palm tree.
Fossil trees were classified as Lycopodiophyta.
The presence of tropical vegetation on Svalbard is explained by the fact that during the Devonian period it was in tropical latitudes.
Over time, the tectonic plate on which the archipelago is located moved into the waters of the Arctic Ocean.
Scientists suggest that the maximum height of the trees did not exceed four meters, and the distance between them was about 20 centimeters.
In 2015, it was proved that 950 million years ago the Svalbard archipelago was part of the ancient continent Arctida-II, the remains of which also include Franz Josef Land, the shelf of the Kara Sea, including the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago and the northern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula, the New Siberian Islands, the shelf The East Siberian Sea, the Chukchi Sea together with the continental territories of Chukotka and northern Alaska.
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