FRUIT 40,000,000 YEARS OLD

Evening Star, Issue 22228, 4 January 1936, Page 7

FRUIT 40,000,000 YEARS OLD

, Fossilised fruit, some, of which. retains its beautiful natural lines, although .it may be 40,000,000 years old, was displayed recently m a l atagonian collection on public view at Buenos Ayres by Dr Franz Mansfield, a German archaeologist, who-has 1 just returned - after spending five years or study in the cold wilds of .the bar South. His collection consists for the most part of araucaria (monkey puzzle) fruits which Dr Mansfield dates back to. the .. third epoch—approximately 40,000,000 years ago. Some of the specimens are striking;—even beautiful —in colour and They have been cut in sections and_ polished ex- ' ternally to reveal the delightful l graining shades of rare colour. Dr Mansfield’s specimens (says the ‘ Christian Science Monitor’) comes from that desolate area bordering on the _ Magellan Straits where, in prehistoric ages, fit is thought, tropical forest and vegetation supplied food for innumerable, dinosaurs, and other , immense creatures long since'extinct. His opinion coincides with North American and European ' natural scientists . who, made recent visits to the distant territory, , which they declared in the tong-distant past,' abounded in 'sustenance for animals of 100 to 150 feet in length._ This contrasts with present conditions in the territory, where sometimes at least five square miles are, required to feed one goat.