Prev | Index | Next

Prev | Index | Next

Araucaria mirabilis
Petrified Pine Cones
Late Jurassic Age, Calovian (160 - 165 million years ago)
Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest, Patagonia, Argentina
3 1/8 inches, brown and pink specimen

The best preserved araucarian forest is no doubt the "Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest in Patagonia". Tree trunks found at the site prove that giant trees, some more than 100 meters tall, flourished there during the Jurassic period. But what makes this site really special are the gorgeous and beautiful preserved silicified cones of Araucaria mirabilis found there.  These magnificant petrified pine cones of the conifer araucaria are almost solely found in Cerro Cuadrado, Patagonia, Argentina. As if by a miracle, these extraordinary specimens have been petrified in a marvelously beautiful state of exceptional preservation.  These cones reveal their full and true beauty when they are cut in half and polished.  Even though these cones grew in the Jurassic over 100 million years ago, some of these cones still display excellently preserved petrified seed kernels. Whenever the forests were buried and then preserved under volcanic ash, petrified wood and seed cones can be found today.  Ash spewed from volcanoes and buried vast forests about 160 million years ago (during the time of the dinosaurs). Minerals from the ash seeped into the cones, injecting them with color as they gradually turned to stone.

See also:
http://www.dernbachs.com
http://www.geoscience-enterprises.com/pinecone.htm
http://www.discovery.com/news/features/fossils/dayfossil2.html
- Araucaria, by Ulrich Dernbach (only about 200 copies in print)