{"id":371,"date":"2021-09-16T10:32:12","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T14:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/to-imagine-a-39-million-year-old-forest-start-small-very-small\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T21:23:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T01:23:02","slug":"to-imagine-a-39-million-year-old-forest-start-small-very-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/to-imagine-a-39-million-year-old-forest-start-small-very-small\/","title":{"rendered":"To Imagine a 39-Million-Year-Old Forest, Start Small\u2014Very Small"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BEFORE IT WAS LOST, IT\u00a0must have been a wild paradise: a lowland tropical forest near the sea and thick with tall palms and other slim, flowering trees. Woody vines snaked through the dense understory, shaded by relatives of today\u2019s cashew and tropical chestnut trees, while stout hop-bushes clustered where sunlight pierced the canopy. Black mangroves sank their roots into the water where crocodiles likely waited, silent and patient, for an unsuspecting meal to wander past. The air would have been thick with birdsong and the click and buzz of insects. Then everything changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEFORE IT WAS LOST, IT\u00a0must have been a wild paradise: a lowland tropical forest near the sea and thick with tall palms and other slim, flowering trees. Woody vines snaked through the dense understory, shaded by relatives of today\u2019s cashew and tropical chestnut trees, while stout hop-bushes clustered where sunlight pierced the canopy. Black mangroves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Imagine a 39-Million-Year-Old Forest, Start Small\u2014Very Small | George Perkins Marsh Institute | Clark University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/to-imagine-a-39-million-year-old-forest-start-small-very-small\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Imagine a 39-Million-Year-Old Forest, Start Small\u2014Very Small\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BEFORE IT WAS LOST, IT\u00a0must have been a wild paradise: a lowland tropical forest near the sea and thick with tall palms and other slim, flowering trees. 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