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Petrified Tree or Araucarioxylon arizonicum
Petrified tree in the Arizona Petrified Forest National Park
There are miles of large petrified tree logs. Colors range the spectrum of the rainbow and caused by the mineral most prominent.
Black=carbon
Green/blue=copper, cobalt or chromium
Yellow=manganese oxides
Purple=manganese
Brown and red=iron oxides
"Araucarioxylon arizonicum" is an extinct species of conifer that is the state fossil of Arizona. 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 Petrified Forest National Park. There, these trunks are locally so abundant that they have been used as building materials.
Similar species: Araucariales
By William Bodine
All rights reserved
Uploaded Jul 11, 2023. Captured Jun 28, 2023 12:03 in Petrified Forest Rd, Petrified Forest National Park, AZ 86028, USA.
