A prehistoric forest now buried under the North Sea is changing what scientists thought they knew. Forests were already growing in Doggerland more than 16,000 years ago, much earlier than expected.
The discovery comes fromancient DNA and points to a surprisingly rich environment. It also suggests some species survived there long after disappearing elsewhere. Doggerland once linked Britain to mainland Europe, forming a wide stretch of land before rising seas covered it. For a long time, it was mostly seen as a passage for early humans moving across the region.
The new study, led by the University of Warwick and published in PNAS, uses sedimentary ancient DNA to trace how the environment evolved over thousands of years. Unlike traditional pollen analysis, this new method reveals a more detailed picture.
Ancient DNA Changes Forest Timeline
According to researchers from the University of Warwick, traces of oak, elm, and hazel appear in sediments dating back more than 16,000 years. That is several thousand years earlier than previous estimates for northern Europe.
The team worked with252 samples taken from 41 marine sediment cores, giving them a large and well-preserved dataset to explore. This helped them follow how the forest changed over time, from the end of the last Ice Age through gradual environmental shifts, until Doggerland finally disappeared underwater.
“By analyzing sedaDNA from Southern Doggerland at a scale not seen before, we have reconstructed the environment of this lost land from the end of the last Ice Age until the North Sea arrived. We unexpectedly found trees thousands of years earlier than anyone expected — and evidence that the North Sea fully formed later than previously thought,” said the study lead author Professor Robin Allaby of the University of Warwick.
Tree Species Thought Extinct Show Up Again
One of the more surprising findings involves Pterocarya, a forest tree genus believed to have vanished from the region around 400,000 years ago. According to the study in PNAS, its DNA still appears in the samples, suggesting it survived far longer in certain isolated areas than previously assumed.
The researchers also found Tilia, or lime trees, appearing about 2,000 years earlier than expected in mainland Britain. This detail suggests that some parts of the region experienced milder and more favorable local conditions, even during periods generally considered harsh.
These areas, often called microrefugia, may help explain how forests spread quickly after the Ice Age, a long-debated phenomenon known as Reid’s Paradox.
A Forest Fit for Early Humans
As explained by Professor Allaby, the environment in Doggerland may have been suitable for early Mesolithic communities, with forests supporting animals such as wild boar.
“From a human perspective, this is the best evidence that Doggerland’s wooded environment could have supported early Mesolithic communities prior to flooding and may help explain why relatively little early Mesolithic evidence survives on mainland Britain today.”
The study also suggests that parts of Doggerland stayed above water longer than thought. Some areas may have survived events like the Storegga tsunami around 8,150 years ago and remained until about 7,000 years ago. As Professor Vincent Gaffney from the University of Bradford explained:
“From a human perspective, this is the best evidence that Doggerland’s wooded environment could have supported early Mesolithic communities prior to flooding and may help explain why relatively little early Mesolithic evidence survives on mainland Britain today.”
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