The Mysterious Mangroves Growing Far From the Coast
The coalition of researchers first clued into the existence of the forest when a fellow scientist who had grown up in the area told them about the strange location. Carlos Burelo, a botanist at the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, has done work in his home region to extensively catalog the ecosystems and biodiversity.
He’d previously made a short film on the mangrove forest with an alumna of the University of California, which is how he alerted the scientists to the forest’s existence. In the film, Burelo recalled how he first came to the San Pedro River 35 years ago and marveled at the unusual trees that were unlike any he’d ever seen.
“I used to fish here and play on these mangroves as a kid, but we never knew precisely how they got there,” Burelo said in a news release. “That was the driving question that brought the team together.”
