Scientists have discovered the oldest-known fossil of a pine tree

The charred pine twigs date back 140 million years to a time when fires raged across large tracts of land.
Pine trees now dominate the forests of the Northern Hemisphere.
The research suggests the tree's evolution was shaped in the fiery landscape of the Cretaceous, where oxygen levels were much higher than today, fuelling intense and frequent wildfires.
"Pines are well adapted to fire today," said Dr Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway, University of London, who discovered the fossils in Nova Scotia, Canada.
"The fossils show that wildfires raged through the earliest pine forests and probably shaped the evolution of this important tree."