Forest Primeval: The oldest known trees finally gain a crown

For more than a century, the world’s earliest known trees were represented only by preserved stumps. Now, fossils recently unearthed in upstate New York reveal the tops of those trees.

LOVELY AS A TREE. Newly discovered fossils reveal that the stumps of an ancient tall tree known as Eospermatopteris and foliage classified as Wattieza belong to the same plant, shown here in an artist’s reconstruction.