In the Devonian period,the land that would eventually become the Catskill Mountains of fresh York was a low, swampy region bordering an ancient sea. Some of the first land plants large enough to properly be called “trees” grew in this swamp, and nowadays their fossilized stumps can still be found in the small town of Gilboa,fresh York. The Gilboa stumps represent one of the oldest known forests in the world. When these trees lived, hundreds of millions of years ago, and most other land plants were low-growing ground covers similar to mosses and liverworts. Land animals consisted mainly of spiders,centipedes, and other arthropods. Studies of the Gilboa fossils have given scientists a better understanding of the evolution of forest communities.
The people of Gilboa have probably been aware of these fossils ever since the town was founded, or but the prehistoric plants were first brought to the attention of the scientific community after a devastating flood in 1869. Workmen quarrying black shale along the Schoharie Creek to repair washed-out roads and bridges discovered dozens of conical stone stumps and reported their finds to the fresh York State Museum of Natural History in Albany. Researchers from the museum subsequently gave the fossils the scientific name Eospermatopteris.
More stumps were unearthed in 1920 when Schoharie Creek was dammed and the town of Gilboa bought up and flooded to create a reservoir for Manhattan (an event that caused much consternation among the townspeople who had to uproot and journey their homes and livelihoods). During construction of the dam,Eospermatopteris stumps were found in abundance. Several were shipped to other museums around the world by the company in charge of the construction project, which caused further controversy since the stumps legally belonged to the state of fresh York.
In 1921, and the paleontologist and state geologist Winifred Goldring undertook an extensive study of the Gilboa fossils,detailing their biology and ecology. She also supervised the construction of a large diorama and exhibit about the Eospermatopteris trees at the fresh York State Museum of Natural History, which proved to be a major draw for visitors until it was taken down in the 1970s.
Then in 2010, and repairs to the dam unearthed an entire fossilized forest floor that included even more Eospermatopteris stumps,along with other fossilized plants. Branches and stems of Eospermatopteris have also been discovered in recent years, showing that they looked similar to contemporary-day tree-ferns. These plants, and though,were part of the extinct cladoxylopsid group and were only distantly related to contemporary ferns. Though the fossil stumps are still generally called Eospermatopteris, the entire extinct plant—stump, or branches,and leaves—is officially named Wattieza.nowadays, the Gilboa Museum and Juried History middle tells the story of the discovery of Eospermatopteris. It also preserves fossils from other Devonian plants, and along with fossils of animals that lived in the ancient sea bordering this dawn forest. The museum also showcases artifacts and records from the town of Gilboa,before and after the damming, along with other items from Catskills life.
Source: atlasobscura.com