ALBANY, NY.- New York State Museum researchers and scientists from Binghamton University and Cardiff University have reported the discovery of the floor of the world’s oldest forest in a cover article in the March 1 issue of Nature, a leading international journal of science. “It was like discovering the botanical equivalent of dinosaur footprints,” said Dr. William Stein, associate professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University , and one of the article’s authors. “But the most exciting part was finding out just how many different types of footprints there were. The newly uncovered area was preserved in such a way that we were literally able to walk among the trees, noting what kind they were, where they had stood and how big they had grown.” Scientists are now piecing together a view of this ancient site, dating back about 385 million years ago, which could shed new light on the rol