The Times of India

400-million-year-old plant reveals meteorite-like water patterns, unlocking secrets of Earths prehistoric climate

Ancient horsetail plants, surviving for 400 million years, are revealing Earth's climate history. Their unique water filtration process creates unusual oxygen isotope signatures, once mistaken for extraterrestrial. Scientists are now using these plants and their fossilized silica structures, called phytoliths, as natural humidity recorders to understand past atmospheric moisture levels, even from the age of dinosaurs.