LESBOS, Greece — Rare and important finds were unearthed during excavations conducted by the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, which were conducted in parallel with the construction of a new road from Kalloni to Sigri, according to an announcement on Friday.

The dig started in the summer of 2018 and has already revealed an impressive number of fossilised tree trunks and strata with leaf imprints in the section of the road traversing the protected area of the Petrified Forest, from Antissa to Sigri.

The director of the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, Professor Nikos Zouros, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency that "the new finds added new elements to the puzzle of our knowledge as they provide new inofrmation on the species that existed in the forest, as well as the climatic conditions that prevailed in the area and the position of volcanoes, the origin of the volcanic material that covered the plants and created the fossils, the strength of the volcanic explosions that destroyed the plant cover but also about the fossilisation process, which led to the creation of the petrified forest of Lesvos".

The Museum is now working on the restoration and showcasing of the new finds in situ, on the side of the roadway where they were found. "After the completion of the works, travelling along the new modern road network will be a unique and unprecedented experience on an international level, as it will be a tour of an open outdoor Museun of Natural History of finds that date back 20 million years," Zouros said.