Were redwoods in the Jurassic period?

In a way, all three species of redwood in existence today are living fossils. They date to the Jurassic period, when redwoods dominated Northern Hemisphere forests. Apart from China's dawn redwood, only the coast redwood and its cousin, the giant sequoia, survive—both in California.



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Almost as Old as the Dinosaurs The earliest redwoods showed up on Earth shortly after the dinosaurs – before flowers, birds, spiders… and, of course, humans. Redwoods have been around for about 240 million years 2, and in California for at least 20 million years, compared to about 200,000 years for “modern” humans 3.

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History. Although it was commonly known from the fossil record from across the northern hemisphere, the dawn redwood was considered extinct until the mid-twentieth century. When the genus Metasequoia was first described in 1941, it was from Mesozoic Era fossils, none of which were less than 150 million years old.

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HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. — At Redwood National and State Park, you will feel like you are in a movie. Maybe that's because Steven Spielberg filmed parts of his popular blockbuster, The Lost World: Jurassic Park at Fern Canyon years ago.

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As its nickname suggests, giant or coastal redwoods thrive in the moist, humid climate of the Northern California coast, where marine fog delivers precise conditions necessary for its growth. The fog adds moisture to the soil and helps trap it there by lowering the rate of evaporation.

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Many specimens have a verified age over 2,000 years and some of the oldest-known redwoods are over 3,000 years old. Redwoods are considered the second oldest trees after bristlecone pines, which are 5,000 years old.

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There is evidence that coast redwoods have existed as far back as 65 million years ago. This was the end of the Cretaceous period, the last time that dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Velociraptor roamed the earth.

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