Old Wood

One of the great gifts science bequeaths mankind is the ability to look into the past. Take, for example, the Danville, Illinois, fossilized forest. Covering 25 square kilometers, this 300 million-year-old rainforest was discovered in a coal mine. Geologists Scott Elrick and John Nelson are not only able to explain the unique combination of climactic and tectonic factors that preserved the forest, but their scientific skills also allow them to identify the fossilized florae that comprise the forest — and some of them have been extinct for geologic ages. See the Illinois of millennia past tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Living World at the Saint Louis Zoo in Forest Park (314-768-5408 or www.stlzoo.org) when Elrick and Nelson present Snapshot in Time: Geologic Secrets of the World's Oldest Rainforest. This photo-heavy presentation is free, and is part of the zoo's Science Seminar series.
Wed., Feb. 27, 2008