Rosa Rubicondior: Creationism Refuted - Reconstructing Europe's Ancient Landscape

Pliocene European landscape.

Márton Zsoldos.

Dense, dark forests in Europe are a modern phenomenon

Europe’s landscapes have a history far older, richer and more dynamic than anything envisaged by the authors of Genesis. Long before humans cleared fields, planted crops or managed woodlands, changing communities of plants and animals were shaping the continent’s vegetation. The countryside was neither a finished creation nor a permanent backdrop against which life played out. It was itself the changing product of ecological interactions operating over millions of years.

A review published in Biological Conservation, by Szymon Czyżewski and colleagues, examines that history across approximately 23 million years. The researchers challenge the familiar picture of prehistoric Europe as an almost continuous expanse of dark, closed-canopy forest. Their synthesis instead supports a widespread mosaic of grassland, scrub, open woodland and denser forest patches, with large herbivores playing an important role in maintaining this variety.

This reconstruction rests on several complementary sources of evidence, including fossil pollen, plant remains, charcoal, animal teeth and ancient environmental DNA. Together, these records allow researchers to investigate landscapes that no human observer ever saw. The result is not a picture of one habitat remaining unchanged for 23 million years, but of recurring landscape patterns within a long history of ecological change.

The animals were active participants in that history. Feeding and disturbance by large herbivores helped maintain open vegetation; their disappearance could alter the balance between trees and open ground. Later, people introduced further changes through hunting, burning, farming and livestock grazing. What we now regard as “natural” therefore requires historical explanation: today’s landscape is not necessarily a reliable guide to the environments in which its species evolved.

For young-Earth creationism, the difficulty begins with the timescale. Here is an environmental history extending millions of years before the supposed creation of the entire Universe, reconstructed from physical evidence rather than ancient storytelling. The study does not investigate creationist claims, but its findings belong to the immense body of evidence those claims must somehow explain away. Compressing this history into a few thousand years does not explain it; it discards the chronology that makes the evidence intelligible.

There is also a lesson in how science works. Even the appealing image of an uninterrupted primeval forest must yield when the evidence supports a more complicated picture. Revising that picture matters beyond academic debate: decisions about restoring habitats should take account of the long ecological history that produced their biodiversity. Understanding nature requires us to investigate its past, not assume that the present preserves an original design.

How Do We Reconstruct a Landscape That Disappeared Millions of Years Ago? No one has photographs of Europe’s Miocene countryside, but ancient environments have left physical traces. Palaeoecology — the study of past ecosystems — uses these traces to reconstruct vegetation, animal communities and environmental change. Each kind of evidence provides a different part of the picture.

Fossil pollen: which plants were present?

Pollen grains have resistant outer walls and can survive in suitable sediments for millions of years. Their distinctive shapes often allow researchers to identify the plant family or genus that produced them. Changes in pollen assemblages through successive sediment layers reveal changes in the surrounding vegetation.

However, tree pollen does not automatically mean continuous, dense forest. Plants differ greatly in how much pollen they produce and how far it travels. Wind-pollinated trees can contribute disproportionately to a sample, while some flowering plants leave a much weaker signal. Researchers must therefore account for pollen production, dispersal and preservation when estimating vegetation cover.

Plant remains: evidence closer to the source

Seeds, fruits, leaves and wood provide another record of vegetation. These larger remains, known as plant macrofossils, can sometimes identify plants more precisely than pollen. They often provide a more local signal, although water and other processes can transport them. Combining pollen with macrofossils helps distinguish vegetation near a sampling site from plants growing farther away.

Animal remains: clues to habitats and feeding

Fossil insects and mammals offer additional evidence because different species have different habitat requirements. An assemblage containing animals associated with open ground can qualify an interpretation based mainly on abundant tree pollen.

Herbivore teeth are particularly informative. Tooth shape and wear provide clues to feeding habits, while stable-isotope measurements can help investigate diet and environmental conditions. These indicators require careful interpretation: no single tooth supplies a complete map of the surrounding landscape.

Charcoal and ancient DNA: disturbance and biological presence

Charcoal particles record past burning. Their abundance, size and distribution can help researchers investigate fire activity, although charcoal alone does not establish whether a fire was started by lightning or people.

Where preservation permits, ancient environmental DNA recovered from sediments can identify organisms that left little recognisable fossil material. DNA preservation is strongly dependent on age and conditions, however. It supplements suitable parts of the record; it is not available throughout the entire 23-million-year interval.

Why several independent clues matter

Every method has limitations. Pollen can travel considerable distances; larger fossils may be scarce; charcoal can be transported; and DNA degrades. Confidence increases when different indicators support the same interpretation within a securely dated sequence.

The aim is therefore not to declare “forest” whenever tree pollen appears. It is to distinguish among closed woodland, scattered trees, grassland and mixtures of these habitats — and to establish how their distribution changed through time. A landscape mosaic can persist as a broad pattern even while its species, climate and individual patches change.

This is the approach taken in the Biological Conservation review: reconstructing Europe’s ecological history by comparing complementary evidence, rather than treating today’s landscapes as an unchanged template for the distant past.

The research paper was accompanied by an Aarhus University article

Dense, dark forests in Europe are a modern phenomenon
For over 20 million years, the landscape of Europe has been a tree-rich mosaic of grasslands, scrubs and more or less open woodlands with an abundance of wildflowers. This is the conclusion of a new and comprehensive study of Europe’s vegetation history – a study that suggests modern afforestation runs counter to the continent’s long-term ecological trajectory.
Imagine walking through pristine nature in central Europe 100,000 – or even a million – years ago. If you picture a dark, dense primeval forest, where sunlight barely reaches the forest floor, then you have taken a wrong turn. Not geographically, but temporally.

You simply have not travelled far enough back in time. Because that image resembles a modern production forest more than past reality.

But if you picture scattered woodlands combined with colorful flowery meadows, where lots of different birds and butterflies are thriving – you’re probably on the right track.

From nature’s perspective, the dense forests are a very recent phenomenon.

A new, comprehensive study led by Aarhus University shows that Europe’s landscapes over the past more than 20 million years have predominantly been a mosaic: a mixture of grasslands, scrub and woodlands of varying density. A light-filled, flower-rich open woodland shaped by grazing animals as a decisive ecological force – not a dark closed-canopy forest.

The study has just been published in Biological Conservation.

Reforestation at odds with nature

The study shows that current reforestation practices are on the wrong track – both here in Denmark, where subsidies are only granted for planting dense forests, and elsewhere in Europe. This will not only be harmful for biodiversity; it will be in direct contradiction to the type of ecosystems that Europe’s species have evolved in over millions of years.

Professor Jens-Christian Svenning, senior author
Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO)
Department of Biology
Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark.

Svenning adds, that the so-called “closed-forest paradigm” for decades has dominated nature management and our understanding of what is natural: the idea that dense forests with closed canopies were Europe’s natural baseline before human intervention.

All available palaeoecological evidence

The new study takes a significant step beyond previous research. Whereas earlier studies have primarily focused on relatively recent periods in the past, the researchers here bring together all available palaeoecological evidence covering the entire period from the Miocene epoch (which began around 23 million years ago) to the pre-industrial era.

The study is based on a large synthesis of independent lines of evidence. The researchers reviewed palaeoecological studies covering the last 23 million years and combined multiple scientific “proxies” that reveal past vegetation structure and ecological processes. These included pollen records, plant macrofossils, charcoal particles from ancient fires, stable-isotope analyses of herbivore teeth and bones, fossil insects and mammals, and ancient environmental DNA preserved in sediments.

Each type of proxy offers its own perspective, but together they let us see whether the landscapes were covered by dense forests, open grasslands, or a mix of the two. By combining these datasets across time – from the Miocene to the pre-industrial era – we could trace long-term changes in vegetation and the role of large herbivores with much greater confidence than earlier studies that used only one method.

Szymon Czyzewski, lead author
Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO)
Department of Biology
Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark.

The conclusion is clear: across this long period, the typical landscape was a dynamic tree- and flower-rich mosaic, where large wild herbivores such as elephants, rhinoceroses, aurochs and bison kept vegetation semi-open and diverse – and this was the case in temperate climates similar to those prevalent in Europe today, as well as in warmer and in cooler climates.

A continent without large wild herbivores

Another central conclusion is that present-day Europe is, in ecological terms, highly unusual.

The ecosystems we see in Europe today lack the large wild herbivores that not only shaped landscapes but also sustained its biodiversity for millions of years. The most dramatic shift has largely taken place within the last hundred years, when traditional extensive grazing disappeared from large parts of the landscape.

Szymon Czyzewski.

The researchers also show that many species now regarded as characteristic of cultural landscapes – such as larks, jackdaws or the European hamster – are likely to have their evolutionary roots in the open woodland systems of the past. And the wild poppies, that we now mostly associate with fields, grew in herbivore-disturbed places within the ancient woodlands.

This suggests that the sharp division between “forest” and “open habitats” that characterises modern conservation practice is a modern invention.

Implications for reforestation and restoration

The findings have direct implications for nature management and biodiversity across temperate Europe – precisely at a time when forests are being planted in the name of climate mitigation and biodiversity.

If the goal is to restore ecosystems resembling those in which Europe’s species evolved and are still adapted to, the study indicates that uniform, dense forests are not the answer.

Instead, restoration efforts should place greater emphasis on creating and maintaining mosaics of woodland and open habitats – not least through the restoration of natural-living large herbivores.

Professor Jens-Christian Svenning.

The study thus reinforces growing evidence from earlier research from the same research environment: Europe’s past was lighter, more heterogeneous and more strongly shaped by large animals than we have long assumed.

One might say that the idea of the dark, dense primeval forest does not collapse overnight – but it loses yet another supporting trunk.

Publication:
Czyżewski, Szymon; Søndergaard, Skjold Alsted; Molnár, Ábel Péter; Kerr, Matthew Roy; Kristensen, Jeppe Aagaard; Atkinson, Joe; Trepel, Jonas; Sykut, Maciej; Radzikowski, Paweł; Termansen, Signe Sangill; Wałach, Karol; Pearce, Elena A.; Pang, Sean E.H.; Zając, Bartłomiej; Bergman, Juraj; Thomassen, Emil Sloth;Mungi, Ninad; Fløjgaard, Camilla; Ejrnæs, Rasmus; Buitenwerf, Robert; Svenning, Jens-Christian
Revisiting Europe's temperate forests: Palaeoecological evidence for an herbivory-driven woodland-grassland mosaic biome
Biological Conservation; 316 111749, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111749

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Highlights

We review palaeoecological evidence for vegetation structure in the temperate forest biome over the last 23 million years.
The evidence reveals long-term persistence of a mosaic dominated by open woodlands, rather than closed-canopy forests.
We show that habitat preferences of contemporary biota reflect such mosaic dominated by open woodlands.
We show that this mosaic, sustained by large herbivores, shifted to a novel state in the Holocene after their extinction.
By replacing wild megafauna, domestic herbivores sustained ancient ecosystems now declining as extensive grazing disappears.

Abstract
Understanding the pre-Homo sapiens baseline of the temperate forest biome is crucial for interpreting present-day biodiversity patterns, ecosystem functioning, and guiding restoration. In this review, we synthesize palaeoecological and ecological evidence to reassess vegetation structure across humid-temperate Europe during the Neogene (23–2.6 Myr) and Quaternary (2.6 Myr–1900 CE). We integrate data from multiple proxies – including pollen, macrofossils, isotopic composition, dental ecometrics, microcharcoal, and ancient environmental DNA – to evaluate whether Europe's temperate biome was dominated by closed-canopy forests, open grassland or by more heterogeneous woodland–grassland mosaics.

Converging lines of evidence indicate that mosaic woodland vegetation – landscapes combining open, loosely wooded, and closed-canopy patches – prevailed throughout these periods, likely in large part maintained by abundant wild large herbivores. Following the Late-Pleistocene megafaunal collapse, tree cover expanded under reduced herbivore pressure. From the Mesolithic onward, humans increasingly shaped vegetation through burning and hunting. Since the Neolithic, our ancestors partially recreated lost disturbance dynamics through the use of domestic herbivores but also introduced novel drivers that produced ecosystems without historical analogues.

These results challenge the traditional paradigm of closed-canopy forests being the dominant natural vegetation type in Europe, showing that homogenous closed-canopy forests are a recent phenomenon that only became the dominant “natural” vegetation after the decline of wild large herbivores and the loss of historical cultural management. Recognizing the woodland-grassland mosaic biome as the dominant natural baseline has major implications for conservation, rewilding, and biodiversity restoration strategies that reflect the ecological and evolutionary history of the temperate zone.

Fig. 3. Artistic palaeo-reconstructions of ecosystem states in Central Europe over the last 23 million years, focusing on large herbivores and taxa indicative of openness. First row Neogene – evolutionary origin of present taxa, second row Pleistocene – pre-Homo sapiens baseline, third row Holocene – non-analogous ecosystems shaped by Homo sapiens.

A) Early Late Miocene (Vallesian - ~10 Mya) – present are Gleditsia (with trunk spines protecting against debarking), Torreya (highly poisonous yew relative), Sequoia abietina, Taxodium/Glyptostrobus, Pinus, Quercus drymeja, Carpinus grandis, Alnus, Osmunda (Kovar-Eder and Schweigert, 2018; Kunzmann et al., 2022; Worobiec et al., 2021), forb-rich herb layer (Feurdean and Vasiliev, 2019) with open habitat plants Armeria, Artemisia, Linum, Plantago, Potentilla (Łańcucka-Środoniowa, 1963), Sanguisorba (Denk et al., 2018.1), cf. Sagina (Geier et al., 2022.1) (with a present representatives reliant on disturbed soil), ground squirrel Spermophilinus bredai (Franzen et al., 2013), open habitat birds: kestrel (Falco tinnunculus atavus), bustard (Otis), little owl (Athene noctua veta), lark (Aulauda); and herbivores: proboscideans (Gomphotherium anguistidens and Zygolophodon turicensis), chalicothere (Chalicotherium goldfussi), rhinoceros (Aceratherium incisivum), swine (Parachleuastochoerus kretzoii) (Eastham et al., 2016), a group of early horses (Hipparion), and a river dam made by early wood-cutting beavers (Castor) (Plint et al., 2020).

B) Middle Pliocene (~3 Mya) – present are Pinus sylvestris, Magnolia, Carpinus (in form of a browsed cage structure (Churski et al., 2017)), Cathaya, Betula, Quercus, Fagus, Carya, Corylus, Weigela szaferi, Taxodium, Picea, Alnus (Alfred et al., 1984; Popescu et al., 2010), forb-rich herb-layer with light-demanding species still extant today Thalictrum flavum and T. simplex, Euphorbia helioscopia and E. esula (both reliant on disturbed soil), Euphorbia palustris, Salvia glutinosa (specialized in semi-open habitats), Silene cf. dichotoma (reliant on disturbed soil) (Teodoridis et al., 2009), Potentilla erecta (Alfred et al., 1984); open-habitat birds are the ptarmigan ancestor Lagopus atavus and the black grouse ancestor Tetrao conjugens (Mourer-Chauvire, 1993), pikas Ochotona polonica are sitting by their burrow, and herbivores: proboscideans Anancus arvernensis toppling a tree and a group of Mammut borsoni in the background, rhinoceros Stephanorhinus etruscus, early wild boar Sus minor, large bovine Leptobos stenometopon (Kowalski, 1989; Rook and Martínez-Navarro, 2010.1). A beaver dam (Castor fiber) is present in the creek.

C) Last Interglacial (Eemian) (130–115 kyr), last warm period before the megafauna extinction – visible are Quercus robur/petraea, Corylus avellana, Carpinus betulus, Pinus sylvestris, Taxus baccata, Ulmus glabra, Fraxinus excelsior, Alnus glutinosa (Bińka and Nitychoruk, 2003), forb-rich herb layer with light-demanding plants Trollius europaeus, Sanguisorba officinalis, Plantago media (Mamakowa, 1989.1), Echium (Bińka and Nitychoruk, 2003), Verbascum (Malkiewicz, 2002), and soil-disturbance specialist Papaver (Majecka, 2014) and Verbena officinalis (Gao et al., 2000), and Filipendula vulgaris scattered in the grassland; open-habitat birds are corn crake (Crex crex), black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix), and western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) (Stefaniak et al., 2023); and open-habitat small mammals European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), European hare (Lepus europaeus), ground squirrel (Spermophilus citelloides), and steppe lemming (Lagurus lagurus; now restricted to the forest-steppe zone, but in the past a characteristic element of the Eemian woodlands in Central Europe) (Puzachenko, 2024); and herbivores: straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), Merck's rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis), wild horse (Equus ferus), aurochs (Bos primigenius), and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Beaver dam is built in the creek.

D) Weichselian High Glacial (Plenivistulian) (59,000–17,000 BP) – dominant trees were Pinus sylvestris, Betula pendula, Salix, temperate-climate shrub Corylus avellana is present by the creek, forb-rich herb-layer dominated by Thalictrum, Artemisia, with forbs currently mostly found in temperate-forest climate like Sanguisorba officinalis, Armeria maritima, Helianthemum nummularium, Scleranthus annuus (reliant on disturbed soil), and Plantago media, as well as cold-climate plant Polygonum viviparum (Mirosław-Grabowska et al., 2018.2) and Betula nana (Wacnik, 2009.1), and a forest-steppe plant Pleurospermum uralense (Mirosław-Grabowska et al., 2018.2); steppe pikas (Ochotona pusilla) were characteristic (Puzachenko, 2024) and European hamster had a continuous presence (Wilczyński et al., 2020.1); tree-reliant, temperate-forest associated taxa were present during Last Glacial Maximum indicating woodland continuity: garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) (Wilczyński et al., 2020.1), black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), and tawny owl (Strix aluco) (Tomek et al., 2012); herbivores depicted are woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), steppe bison (Bison priscus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), and saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica; characteristic for Late-Pleistocene cold periods) (Puzachenko, 2024). Beavers appear to have been largely absent during cold periods.

E) Holocene – Mesolithic (11,700–~7000 BP) – the extirpation of most large herbivores likely caused local tree densification and dominance of competitive grasses like reed (Phragmites australis) or other competitive herbs like Filipendula ulmaria shown by the creek likely causing reduction in plant diversity (Giesecke et al., 2019.1). Dominant trees are depicted Quercus robur/petraea, Pinus sylvestris, Alnus glutinosa, and Ulmus (Giesecke et al., 2017.1). Most woodlands were likely kept open by human-caused fires with large herbivores likely only locally impacting vegetation due to human hunting strongly reducing population sizes. The only widespread large herbivores were likely mostly browsers (Niedziałkowska et al., 2024.1; Pilowsky et al., 2023.1); red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), and moose (Alces alces) are shown; Eurasian beaver was widespread (Horn et al., 2014.1); and large non-selective grazers were largely missing (the abundance of aurochs is however not clear). Despite this, at least some light-demanding plants and open habitat animals still survived this period, here depicted are Polemonium caeruleum, Sanguisorba officinalis (Feurdean et al., 2018.3), Pulsatilla patens, and Polygonum bistorta (Neotoma database), as well as European hamster (Wilczyński et al., 2020.1), kestrel, and corn crake (Tomek et al., 2012). The abundance of forest dwelling small mammals – here depicted is bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) – unprecedentedly increased locally (Cyrek et al., 2010.2), likely connected to local canopy densification in Early Holocene (Sandom et al., 2014.2a). This might have resulted in an increased abundance of other closed-canopy tolerant taxa like the here shown black bird (Turdus merula) (Tomek et al., 2012). It is important to note that these taxa were present during the Pleistocene but likely in lower abundances.

F) Holocene pre-industrial – Middle Ages (~600 BP) – after the introduction of domestic large herbivores in the Neolithic many ecosystem functions were likely restored. Domestic large herbivores which partially restored wild-large-herbivore function are depicted: horse (Equus ferus caballus), cattle (Bos taurus), sheep (Ovis aries), and pigs (Sus scrofa domestica). Wild large herbivores were mostly represented by red deer. Many open habitat animals restored their ranges relying on the agricultural mosaic for substitute of their pre-human grassland-woodland mosaic habitat, here shown are European hamster (now critically endangered), European hare, corn crake, western jackdaw, great bustard (Otis tarda), and European roller (Coracias garrulus) (the latter two now extinct across most of their former European range due to changes in agriculture). Tree cover was, however, much lower than during the Eemian, shown are common trees Quercus robur/petraea, Pinus sylvestris, Betula pendula, Alnus glutinosa; forb-rich herb layer with light-demanding plants Plantago media, Sanguisorba officinalis, Trollius europaeus, Polygonum bistorta, Echium vulgare, and plants reliant on soil disturbance Verbena officinalis and Papaver rhoeas (now associated with plowing).

Credit: Paintings by Márton Zsoldos.

Czyżewski, Szymon; Søndergaard, Skjold Alsted; Molnár, Ábel Péter; Kerr, Matthew Roy; Kristensen, Jeppe Aagaard; Atkinson, Joe; Trepel, Jonas; Sykut, Maciej; Radzikowski, Paweł; Termansen, Signe Sangill; Wałach, Karol; Pearce, Elena A.; Pang, Sean E.H.; Zając, Bartłomiej; Bergman, Juraj; Thomassen, Emil Sloth;Mungi, Ninad; Fløjgaard, Camilla; Ejrnæs, Rasmus; Buitenwerf, Robert; Svenning, Jens-Christian
Revisiting Europe's temperate forests: Palaeoecological evidence for an herbivory-driven woodland-grassland mosaic biome
Biological Conservation; 316 111749, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111749

Copyright: © 2026 The authors.
Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

The picture that emerges is of a continent with a deep ecological history: changing communities of plants and animals, shifting patterns of woodland and open ground, and landscapes shaped by interactions extending over millions of years. That history is incompatible with the young-Earth creationist claim that the world and its inhabitants originated just a few thousand years ago. The problem is not merely that the dates disagree with a literal reading of Genesis. It is that the evidence reveals a succession of ecological changes for which that abbreviated biblical chronology has no credible room.

Invoking a global flood does not resolve the discrepancy. Any proposed alternative must explain the evidence itself, including the changing associations of plants and animals and their occurrence within independently investigated geological sequences. Simply assigning everything to a biblical catastrophe supplies a conclusion in advance of the investigation. It does not explain why the evidence supports a history so much longer and more complicated than the story permits.

This review also illustrates something creationist polemics routinely misrepresent about science. The researchers are challenging an influential view of Europe’s natural vegetation: the assumption that dense, closed-canopy forest provides the appropriate baseline. They do so by bringing together evidence that supports a more varied landscape, with large herbivores helping to maintain woodland–grassland mosaics. An established interpretation is being questioned through the ordinary processes of scientific research.

That does not mean one review settles every question, or that its conclusions should become a new orthodoxy. The extent of woodland openness, its variation between regions and periods, and the relative importance of herbivores and other influences remain matters for investigation. Scientific consensus earns its authority from the evidence supporting it, and remains open to revision when a better explanation emerges. Debate about the details of Europe’s ancient landscapes does not, however, make their millions of years of history disappear.

The contrast with religious dogma is therefore methodological as well as chronological. Science permits even a familiar and persuasive account to be challenged, provided the challenge survives scrutiny. Biblical literalism makes fidelity to an ancient account the condition that any explanation must satisfy. Here, scientists are asking what Europe’s landscapes were actually like, even if the answer requires them to revise a cherished picture. A belief that cannot be corrected by evidence has no comparable means of discovering that it is wrong.

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