Fossil wood, also known as fossilized tree, is

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

that is preserved in the

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

. Over time the wood will usually be the part of a plant that is best preserved (and most easily found). Fossil wood may or may not be

petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () 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. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...

, in which case it is known as ''

petrified wood Petrified wood (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial plant, terrestrial vegetation. ''Petrifaction ...

'' or ''petrified tree''. The study of fossil wood is sometimes called palaeoxylology, and a palaeoxylologist is 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: therefore such wood may get a special kind of

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or cultivar group, Group epithets must conform t ...

. This will usually include "xylon" and a term indicating its presumed (not necessarily certain) affinity, such as '' Araucarioxylon'' (wood similar to that of extant ''

Araucaria ''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. While today they are largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous they were glo ...

'' or some related genus like

Agathis ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside ''Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

Wollemia ''Wollemia'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae, endemic to Australia. It represents one of only three living genera in the family, alongside ''Araucaria'' and ''Agathis'' (being more closely related to the latter). The ge ...

), ''

Palmoxylon ''Palmoxylon'' (petrified palmwood) is an extinct genus of palm named from petrified wood found around the world. Fossil record This genus is known in the fossil record from the Late Cretaceous to the Miocene (from about 84.9 to 11.6 million y ...

'' (wood similar to that of modern Arecaeae), or '' Castanoxylon'' (wood similar to that of modern chinkapin or

chestnut tree The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description C ...

Types

Petrified wood

''Petrified wood'' are fossils of wood that have turned to stone through the process of

permineralization Permineralization is a process of fossilization of bones and tissues in which mineral deposits form internal Casting, casts of organisms. Carried by water, these minerals fill the spaces within organic tissue. Because of the nature of the casts, p ...

. All organic materials are replaced with minerals while maintaining the original structure of the wood. The most notable example is the

petrified forest Petrified wood (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial plant, terrestrial vegetation. ''Petrifaction ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Mummified wood

Mummified wood are fossils of wood that have not permineralized. They are formed when trees are buried rapidly in dry cold or hot environments. They are valued in paleobotany because they retain original cells and tissues capable of being examined with the same techniques used with extant plants in

dendrology Dendrology (, ''dendron'', "tree"; and , ''-logia'', ''science of'' or ''study of'') or xylology (, ''ksulon'', "wood") is the science and study of woody plants (trees, shrubs, and lianas), specifically, their taxonomic classifications. There ...

. Notable examples include the mummified forests in

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island (; ) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total ...

and

Axel Heiberg Island Axel Heiberg Island (, ) is an uninhabited island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Located in the Arctic Ocean, it is the 32nd largest island in the world and Canada's seventh largest island. According to Statistics Canada, it ha ...

Submerged forests

''Submerged forests'' are remains of trees submerged by

marine transgression A marine transgression is a geologic event where sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground, resulting in flooding. Transgressions can be caused by the land sinking or by the ocean basins filling with water ...

. They are important in determining

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

since the last glacial period.

References

{{Authority control Fossil record of plants Wood Paleobotany

Types

Petrified wood

Mummified wood

Submerged forests

See also

References