Growing pains: The oldest trees on Earth ripped themselves apart, fossils show
Scientists have discovered 374-million-year-old tree fossils from the dawn of Earth's forests - and found that these strange plants literally had to rip themselves apart as they grew.
The fossils, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shed light on the nature of ancient forests and the evolution of the Earth's climate.
The Xinicaulis lignescens fossils, discovered in Xinjiang, China, are part of a group of species known as Cladoxylopsida - plants that have no known descendants but are
