Editing Wood (section)

==History==

A 2011 discovery in the [[Canadian province]] of [[New Brunswick]] yielded the earliest known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 [[million years ago]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/n-b-fossils-show-origins-of-wood-1.1052870|title=N.B. fossils show origins of wood|publisher=[[CBC.ca]]|access-date=August 12, 2011|date=August 12, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813012432/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/08/12/nb-origins-of-wood-found.html|archive-date=August 13, 2011|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Philippe Gerrienne|display-authors=etal|title=A Simple Type of Wood in Two Early Devonian Plants|journal=Science|volume=333|issue=6044|pages=837|date=Aug 12, 2011|doi=10.1126/science.1208882|pmid=21836008|bibcode=2011Sci...333..837G|hdl=2268/97121 |s2cid=23513139|url=http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/jspui/handle/2268/97121|hdl-access=free}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Wood can be dated by [[carbon dating]] and in some species by [[dendrochronology]] to determine when a wooden object was created.

People have used wood for thousands of years for many purposes, including as a [[fuel]] or as a [[construction]] material for making [[house]]s, [[tool]]s, [[weapon]]s, [[furniture]], [[packaging]], [[artwork]]s, and [[paper]]. Known [[construction]]s using wood date back ten thousand years. Buildings like the longhouses in [[Neolithic]] Europe were made primarily of wood.

Recent use of wood has been enhanced by the addition of steel and bronze into construction.<ref name="Woods-2017">{{cite web|last1=Woods|first1=Sarah|title=A History of Wood from the Stone Age to the 21st Century|url=http://www.ecobuildingpulse.com/products/a-history-of-wood_o|website=EcoBUILDING|date=July 18, 2016 |publisher=A Publication of The American Institute of Architects|access-date=March 28, 2017|ref=3|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329051421/http://www.ecobuildingpulse.com/products/a-history-of-wood_o|archive-date=March 29, 2017|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives [[proxy (climate)|clues]] to the prevailing climate at the time a tree was cut.<ref name="Briffa-2008" >{{cite journal
 |author=Briffa, K.
 |date=2008
 |title=Trends in recent temperature and radial tree growth spanning 2000 years across northwest Eurasia
 |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
 |issue= 1501
 |pages=2271–2284
 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2007.2199
 |pmid=18048299
 |volume=363
 |pmc=2606779
 |last2=Shishov
 |first2=V.V.
 |last3=Melvin
 |first3=T.M.
 |last4=Vaganov
 |first4=E.A.
 |last5=Grudd
 |first5=H.
 |last6=Hantemirov}}</ref>