The site of the Panama Canal was once home to a unique forest

A prehistoric mangrove forest that grew in ancient times on the site of the present-day Panama Canal has revealed its secret to scientists. The Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Research found 121 fragments of petrified trees. The samples were taken from a creek on Barro Colorado Island. The age of the findings reaches about 22 million years. We are talking about the flora Sonneratioxylon barrocoloradoensis.

The mangrove forest is a distinctive and extremely interesting plant community that develops along the shores of bodies of water and generally prefers the warm climate around the equator. Usually, plants die in salty environments, but this species has developed special adaptation mechanisms: it removes salt from H2O.