Table of Contents
What type of evidence can be found in petrified remains?
Fossils often form when an organism’s remains become petrified, or “turned into stone.” In this process, mineral-rich water soaks into the small cavities and pores of the original organ- ism. The minerals precipitate from the water and fill the spaces.
What is an example of petrified?
Petrified is defined as rigid, paralyzed, or turned to stone. An example of petrified is someone unable to move because of fear. An example of petrified is a tree turned to stone after hot lava flowing over it.
Is petrified wood considered a rock?
Petrified wood could be an answer to the riddle, “When is a stone not a rock?” It is not igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic, but it is made up of minerals. It is a fossil – the preserved remains or traces of a tree from the remote past.
What is the most common example of something that gets petrified?
Wood is one of the most common types of things to become petrified. In fact, there are several known petrified forests throughout the world, including petrified forests in 11 of the 50 states in the U.S. and 19 other countries worldwide.
How does something become petrified?
Petrified wood forms when fallen trees get washed down a river and buried under layers of mud, ash from volcanoes and other materials. Over millions of years, these minerals crystallize within the wood’s cellular structure forming the stone-like material known as petrified wood.
What do you mean by petrification?
1 : to convert (organic matter) into stone or a substance of stony hardness by the infiltration of water and the deposition of dissolved mineral matter. 2 : to make rigid or inert like stone: a : to make lifeless or inactive : deaden slogans are apt to petrify a man’s thinking — Saturday Rev.
What is the meaning of the word petrified wood?
Petrified wood (from the Latin root petro meaning “rock” or “stone”; literally “wood turned into stone”) is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree or tree-like plants having completely transitioned to stone by the process of permineralization.
What do you mean when you say petrified fossils?
Answer Wiki. 3 Answers. Petrification means turning into stone. In plant or organism fossils context, when organisms fill part of an organism (or fully), the fossils formed such are called petrified (stone) fossils. Petrified fossils are one of the fossil types.
Where does the petrified wood process take place?
Unlike other plant fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material. The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried in water-saturated sediment or volcanic ash.
Which is the best way to preserve petrified wood?
Some of the best specimens of petrified wood have been preserved by silicification. Two forms of silicification are common. The most abundant is wood that has been replaced and infilled by chalcedony (sometimes called “agatized wood”).