Rare English bits are oldest known charcoal

Sifting through material extracted from 420-million-year-old rocks along the England–Wales border, scientists have found what appear to be charcoal remnants of the earliest known wildfire.

The carbonized bits of stem are black, brittle, and shiny, and they leave streaks when rubbed against other materials. It usually takes temperatures that exceed 400°C to form such charcoal, says Dianne Edwards of Cardiff University in Wales.