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Fossil wood may or may not be petrified, in which case it is known as petrified wood or petrified tree. The study of fossil wood is sometimes called palaeoxylology, with a "palaeoxylologist" somebody who studies fossil wood. The fossil wood may be the only part of the plant that has been preserved, with the rest of the plant completely unknown ...
The petrified wood is later exposed by erosion of surrounding sediments. Non-mineralized fossil wood is rapidly destroyed when exposed by erosion, but petrified wood is quite durable. [2] Some 40 minerals have been identified in petrified wood, but silica minerals are by far the most important.
Tree remains that have undergone petrifaction, as seen in Petrified Forest National Park. In geology, petrifaction or petrification (from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra) 'rock, stone') is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals.
The name of the park gives it away: Most of the fossils you'll see at Petrified Forest are of exquisite petrified wood from the Triassic period over 200 million years ago.
Araucarioxylon arizonicum (alternatively Agathoxylon arizonicum) is an extinct species of conifer that is the state fossil of Arizona. [1] The species is known from massive tree trunks that weather out of the Chinle Formation in desert badlands of northern Arizona and adjacent New Mexico, most notably in the 378.51 square kilometres (93,530 acres) Petrified Forest National Park. [2]
A piece of petrified wood in situ, Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The Denver Basin contains relatively few late Paleocene-age strata–with many dating to older periods–but laser ablation sampling in 2015 compared with a core sample from Castle Pines 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) away has been interpreted as indicating this more recent date.
For many travelers, Petrified Forest may be a stop to somewhere else, like the Grand Canyon, but this national park is special in its own right.
At the time of its NRHP nomination, Lemmon Petrified Wood Park claimed to be the largest petrified wood park in the world. [2] It takes up one 3-acre (1.2 ha) block in the center of downtown Lemmon, South Dakota, and is bounded by Main Avenue (U.S. 12) to the west, 5th Street East to the north, 1st Avenue East to the east, and 6th Avenue East to the south.