Collection: Growth Rings | Heavy Log | Palm Tree Root



This is the real millennium gift from my friend Manfred and his Family in Texas. Dale, another good friend of mine, game me the following comments: Petrified palm wood is the "official" stone of the state of Texas. During the Cretaceous time much of eastern Texas was where a large river met the ocean. Palm trees would be uprooted in storms and would drift to the ocean. Eventually the trees were buried in mud and became fossilized. We think this is true because when we find fossil palm wood we also find fossils of ocean animals.

Petrification, one kind of fossilization, occurs when chemical changes cause a mineral to grow, grain by grain, in place of the original tissues of the animal or plant. Growth rings, like those that can be seen in the wood of trees living today, show clearly in those polished surfaces of petrified wood. They provide useful information about the seasonal growth of those trees, and the climate at the time those trees were living.