petrified wood 4: South America (Brazil, Argentina)                         

6. Brazil

There are two main petrified forests in Brazil. The petrified forest of Araguaina is well known for petrified Araucaria (a common conifer like tree), Tietea  and Psaronius (tree-ferns) and Calamites (horsetail). The majority of the fossils are tree-fens of a bright colour spectrum. The wood is from the Permian geologic age. Psaronius is an extinct fern. It could grow up to 15 meters high. Tree ferns don't have secondary growth. They have developed another way to form a stable trunk. The tiny vascular strand of the young plant while growing upwards divides into several parts, causing an upward broadening of the wooden kernel. At the same time a large number of adventitious roots are given off, forming together a root mantle. This root mantle gives the trunk its stability. The base of the trunk of the tree ferns is often thickened because of the broad root mantle.

The second well known forest is located at the region of Sao Pedro do Sul in southwest Brazil. This wood-mostly conifers (Araucaria)- are from the Triassic geologic age.

Nowadays there are information's of some new species of Psaronius (Dernbachii brasiliensis, Grammatopteris freiteisii)found in Brazil.

Tietea singularis (ca. 120 x 100 mm)

Tietea singularis (ca. 100 x 100 mm)

7. Argentina

In Argentina there is one of the biggest petrified araucaria forests existent in the world. Declared Natural Monument in the year 1954 by National Ordinance, it possesses an area of 15.000 hectares located in the northeast of the Province of Santa Cruz, south of Argentina. At the end of the Jurassic (150 million years ago) an intense volcanic activity took place, coincident with the formation of the Andes range. The whole south of the Patagonia was then occupied by an exuberant vegetation and by dense forests formed by gigantic trees. This atmosphere proliferated thanks to the warm and humid climate that reigned in that part of the continent. The Araucarias forest succumbed buried by successive rains of volcanic ash and violent winds. The most outstanding in this place, is that the trees lie in the same place where all their lives lapsed, its even possible to observe their roots; this fact implied the denomination of "petrified forest" (autochthon). Considered to be one of the world's best petrified reserves, the Petrified Forest has many trees that measure more than 10 feet in diameter and 90 feet long.

The place Cerro Curado is famous around the world because of the petrified cones. The closed cones look like they were recent, just pulled from the tree, but they have to get cut and polished for showing all of their beauty. It's amazing-natures wonder.