A specimen of coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) found in a remote forest in Redwood National Park (Northern California) has proved to be the world's tallest tree, edging out one nearby that had been the previous titleholder.

The exceptional tree, named Hyperion, at 379.1 feet height, is eight feet taller than the previous record tree, another coast redwood called Stratosphere Giant, 370.5 feet tall, located in a state park about 90 miles south.

Hyperion was discovered by two naturalists, Michael Taylor and Chris Atkins, who also identified two other redwoods in the same forest taller than Stratosphere Giant: a tree called Helios at 376.3 feet and another called Icarus at 371.2 feet. "Researchers exploring remote and rugged terrain this summer in the Redwood National and State Parks along California's northernmost coast also discovered two other redwoods taller than the Stratosphere Giant, suggesting there had been many more massive ancient redwoods in the area," said Professor Steve Sillet from Humboldt State University.

"Some of those taller trees may have fallen to loggers, while the remaining ones were saved by a logging ban when the Redwood National Park was expanded in 1978," Sillett said.

"What we have today is a few small remnants that suggest what these trees are capable of doing," Sillett said.

The scientists had to wait until the end of the nesting season of the endangered marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a sea bird, to measure Hyperion and confirm its status as the world's tallest tree. The researchers found that Hyperion could have reached 380 feet, had it not been damaged at its top by woodpeckers.

Atkins, who discovered the Stratosphere Giant in 2000, and Taylor turned back later to obtain more exact measurements of the tree's height, using a tripod-mounted laser. "Researchers plan to climb Hyperion in coming weeks and drop a tape measure to confirm its height so it can be entered in the record books," Atkins said.

Taylor and Atkins said the chances of finding a tree still taller than Hyperion are very low, because 95 % of the prime habitat for big redwoods has been already searched. The exact locations of the trees won't be pinpointed due to concern that too many visitors could damage the delicate ecosystem of the mild, foggy slopes where the redwoods grow.

Coast redwoods are coniferous trees that grow in a narrow strip of land, approximately 750 km in length and 8-75 km width along the Pacific coast in western US, in elevation 30 to 750 m, in very most and foggy forests.