PETRIFIED WOOD FOSSIL FROM NAMIBIA 280 MILLION YEARS OLD

A LARGE RECTANGULAR SHAPED (10L X 7W x 7H CM) PIECE OF XMAS TREE TURNED TO STONE PETRIFIED WOOD FOSSIL FROM NAMIBIA 280 MIL YEARS OLD

A LARGE RECTANGULAR SHAPED (10CM LONG x 7CM WIDE x 7CM HIGH) CHUNK OF PERIFIED WOOD (TREES TURNED TO STONE) SHOWING BEAUTIFUL INTERNAL RING PATTERNS AND THE OUTER BARK LAYER.

THESE PETRIFIED WOODEN SAMPLE HAS BEEN IN MY FAMILY POSSESSION FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS. I WAS TOLD IT WAS A PIECE OF XMAS TREE AND THAT IT CAME FROM NAMIBIA AND WAS 280 MILLION YEARS OLD.

SO HOW DID A XMAS TREE FROM EUROPE END OUP BEING TURNED TO STONE IN WHAT IS NAMIBIA?

PETRIFIED FOREST OF NAMIBIA:
Namibias Petrified Forest is located 42 kilometres (26 miles) from Khorixas in the northern region of Namibia. Way back, in the 1940's the forest was discovered by two farmers. It is a collection of enormous fossilized tree trucks that can be dated back 280 million years!

WHERE DID THE TREES COME FROM? BECAUSE SCIENTISTS HAVE FOUND THAT THE TRUNKS IN THE AREA COME FROM TREES (CONIFER CONE TREES OR XMAS TREES) THAT NEVER GREW NATURALLY IN NAMIBIA.

IT WAS ESTABLISHED THAT THESE TREE TRUNKS WASHED DOWN A RIVER IN PREHISTORIC TIMES WHEN ONE OF THE MANY ICE AGES ENDED ON THE GONDWANA SUPER CONTINENT. IT IS BELIEVED THAT IT MUST HAVE BEEN A MASSIVE FLOOD THAT CARRIED THE GIANT TREES TO WHERE THEY LIE TODAY.

So, with all the flooding the trees were buried rather deeply. That is until erosion brought the trees back to the surface. Because of this, there are at least two trees that are fully exposed that measure up to 45m in length. Unfortunately, these giant trunks broke into various smaller chunks of about two metres each.

SCIENTIST FOUND THAT THE ANCIENT REMNANTS BELONG THE CORDAITES TREE FAMILY. THIS KIND OF TREE USED TO GROW IN THE REGION THAT IS NOW KNOWN AS EUROPE. AND THEY WERE THE ANCESTORS OF THE TREE THAT ARE, TODAY, KNOWN AS FIRS (FIR TREES ARE A GENUS OF THE EVERGREEN CONIFEROUS TREES AND ARE A POPULAR CHOICE FOR CHRISTMAS TREES DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.) AND SPRUCES

SIZE: 10CM LONG x 7CM WIDE x 7CM HIGH

PETRIFIED WOOD: Petrified Wood is a fossil ranging in age from 40 million years old to more than 200 million years old. It forms when plant material is buried by sediment and protected from decay due to oxygen and organisms.
Ground water, rich in dissolved minerals, flows through the sediment and slowly replaces the original plant material with inorganic materials (most often a silicate such as quartz but may also contain calcite, pyrite, and even opal.) Most specimens exhibit clearly recognizable bark and woody structures. 
Petrified wood is hence exceptionally rare and prized by collectors.
Some specimens of petrified wood are such accurate preservations that people do not realize they are fossils until they pick them up and are shocked by their weight. These specimens with near-perfect preservation are unusual; however, specimens that exhibit clearly recognizable bark and woody structures are more common.

PLEASE SEE MY OTHER ITEMS ON AUCTION. I ALSO HAVE A LARGE DESERT ROSE SANDSTONE SAMPLE AND SOME CALCOPYRITE FOOLS GOLD ORE PEBBLES.