The Underwater Forest

Scientists swim along the edge of an ancient river channel in the Underwater Forest. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Fresh grain inside a piece of the Underwater Forest shows how well the wood is preserved. This wood is 60,000 years old. (Photo: Ben Raines)

This image shows the Gulf shoreline during an ice age 60,000 years ago. You can see the ancient shoreline, the modern shoreline, and the spot where the forest was found. Maps courtesy of Deep Time Maps.

Stumps rise among logs and branches that once were lying on the forest floor. Around the stumps, you can make out the remnants of the cypress knees that help keep these trees upright in the great Southern swamps. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Dr. Kristine DeLong has led the scientific effort to study the ancient cypress forest.

A large school of vermillion snapper swarm over a stump that has been colonized by sponges in the Underwater Forest. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A giant stump in the Underwater Forest is about the size of a VW bug. (Photo: Ben Raines)

An endangered Kemp's Ridley turtle makes a living rummaging for food in the Underwater Forest. Remoras, or suckerfish, hitch a ride by sticking to the turtles back with a suction pad on the top of their heads. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A glassy sea above the Underwater Forest as the Gulf of Mexico slicks off on a windless day. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Red snapper watch as Dave Carlton, a member of the Underwater Forest dive crew, cuts a small alder stump with a bow saw. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Fossilized sharks' teeth can be found by the hundreds in certain rivers in central Alabama, a hundred miles inland. The teeth were left behind from an era 100 million years ago, when a giant and ancient sea covered much of the United States. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Dr. Marty Becker studies the ancient world through the fossil record.

Dr. Grant Harley, a dendrochronologist, studied the trees as they were brought up from the deep.

A team from Lousiana State University lower a vibracore machine into the Gulf to capture ancient sediments. The results showed that this forest resembled a North Carolina forest of today, rather than a Gulf Coast forest. In essence, it was a forest designed for a colder climate. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A triggerfish, stage right, eyes a group of juvenile blue and yellow cocoa damselfish. Also known as beau gregories, the small fish transform to a cocoa color when adults. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Cypress knees are believed the help the trees stay upright in the soupy mud at the bottom of the great Southern swamps. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Fossilized sharks' teeth can be found by the hundreds in certain rivers in central Alabama, a hundred miles inland. The teeth were left behind from an era 100 million years ago, when a giant and ancient sea covered much of the United States. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A school of cigar minnows feed in the rich waters above the Underwater Forest, part of a rich ecosystem centered over the ancient cypress trees. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A carpet of sea anemones cover a decaying stump in the Underwater Forest. The longer a piece of wood has been exposed, the more creatures inhabit it, from crabs to shrimp to octopuses. Storms constantly expose new parts of the forest. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Cypress trees in a modern swamp in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. (Photo: Ben Raines)

The tight grain of this piece of cypress shows that the tree grew in a colder, harsher world than the one we know today. (Photo: Ben Raines)

This piece of wood sports a gallery carved by a beetle 60,000 years ago. Look closely and you can see the bark is still present on this piece of cypress. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A ledge outlines the edge of an ancient river that once wove through this ancient forest.

Hurricane Ivan, seen here as it came ashore, passed right over the spot where the Underwater Forest was discovered. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A school of tomtates, or ruby-red lips, school over the Underwater Forest. The fish earned the nickname from the scarlet skin inside their mouths. (Photo: Ben Raines)

The Underwater Forest dates to an ice age 60,000 years ago, when much of the water on Earth was frozen in glaciers. The Ice Age most people think of occured 12,000 years ago. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Sediment cores from the Underwater Forest showed that this forest resembled a North Carolina forest of today, rather than a Gulf Coast forest. In essence, it was a forest designed for a colder climate. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Divers float a log from the Underwater Forest to the surface for examination by scientists. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Before landfall, Hurricane Ivan raged through the Gulf as a Category 5 hurricane. A series of government data buoys in the Gulf recorded 98-foot tall waves before they were torn from their moorings. The waves were the largest ever measured.

Most of the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is a barren desert, inhabited by starfish and jellyfish and little else. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Dr. Martin Becker, a paleontologist from William Paterson University in New Jersey, studies the Underwater Forest. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Filmmaker Ben Raines has a close call with a small but inquisitive sandbar shark while filming in the Underwater Forest. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Stumps the size of garbage cans and a log as big around as a telephone pole in this tableau of life on the living reef that the ancient forest has become. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Dr. Kristine DeLong, a paleoclimatologist at Louisiana State University, swims over the Underwater Forest for the first time. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Dr. Grant Harley, a dendrochronologist at the University of Southern Mississippi, seals samples from the Underwater Forest in a fume hood to dry them out slowly. He dried them for a month to ensure the pieces did not crack. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Cut with a band saw, wood from the Underwater Forest released a fresh resin smell when cut, and remants of sap leaked out, sap that was created 60,000 years ago. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Three flame cardinal fish hover close to the reef. Usually nocturnal, the fish are often seen in caves and dark places. They inhabit the nooks and crannies of the forest. (Photo: Ben Raines)

This image shows the Gulf shoreline during an ice age 60,000 years ago. You can see the ancient shoreline, the modern shoreline, and the spot where the forest was found. Maps courtesy of Deep Time Maps.

Dr. Kristine DeLong, a paleoclimatologist from Louisiana State University, drills a coring machine into a stump to extract a sample of growth rings inside the tree. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A school of cigar minnows feed in the rich waters above the Underwater Forest, part of a rich ecosystem centered over the ancient cypress trees. (Photo: Ben Raines)

Most of the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is a barren desert, inhabited by starfish and jellyfish and little else. (Photo: Ben Raines)

A slice of a tree trunk that has been buried in the Gulf of Mexico for 70,000 years smelled of sap when it was cut in the lab.