Arizona

BY: Benchie Callo //Araucarioxylon arizonicum //(Petrified wood)
 * __Arizona State Fossil __**

[] [] The petrified wood on the left is seen in different colors because of the many different substances and minerals it absorbed while the other piece of wood in the right is not as colorful because it most likely absorbed many of the same minerals over the years.
 * __Description __**
 * o Looks (texture) like regular wood, but may take on a darker color
 * o The petrified version of the wood will be the same size as the original piece of wood itself before it was petrified, (in other words, size varies with the tree’s age/part of tree)
 * o It is actually no longer wood but rock, it may look like wood but all of that was replaced by materials in the water that the wood absorbed over time


 * __Time Existed __**
 * o Trees have been tracked to have started being petrified as far back as 200 million years
 * o Mostly trees became petrified in warm tropical areas, or somewhere that’s close to a marsh/swamp


 * __Preservation __**
 * o A tree dies and falls to the ground ( most preferably somewhere muddy)
 * o When mud covers a non-decayed part of a tree then the process starts
 * o While covered under mud the tree may take its original texture
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The tree would eventually start deteriorating, and while this is happening water seeps into the mud and tree
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The water that seeps in contains many minerals that stay in the tree and in the future makes up the petrified wood itself while the water evaporates


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Who Discovered it/ How Did it Come to be the State Fossil __**
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many people saw the wondrous petrified wood but only in 1851did an American Army officer officially announce the existence of this mineral; Lorenzo Silgreaves
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Petrified wood is Arizona’s state fossil because the state contains the most abundance of it within its areas, they even have a park called Petrified Forest National Park for its large abundance of the mineral


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Sources __**
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Park Vision Shannon Tech (2012). Petrified Forest National Park. Retrieved from []
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Robert James (2005). Petrified Wood. Retrieved from []
 * o <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Robrt S. Dietz, Troy L. Pewe and Mitchell Woodhouse (1987). <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">PETRIFIED WOOD (ARAUCARIOXYLON ARIZONICUM): PROPOSED AS ARIZONA'S STATE FOSSIL <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Retrieved from []