A marvelous petrified Araucaria tree trunk measuring 1m tall has permineralised to form the exquisite display of petrification which consists of several processes before they are finally exhibited here, this story begins many milenia ago with a natural disaster which felled thousands of Araucaria araucana trees, these trees became open to the surrounding elements which fortunately, was a mineral rich environment, helping the preservation, mineralisation and petrification anomalies which have transformed once-living organisms in to a piece of historical art, some 220,000,000+ years in the making.

In this extraordinary deposition quartz, in the form of Jaspers and calcites have solidified over millions of years creating a solid stone tree. Growth rings can be picked out in bands of varying colours. A very remarkable and rare verde colouration, which over millions of years, has created the fossilised outer bark. While Jasper has been absorbed by the internal trunk tissues and has created the attractive darker red tones within the once-living tissue of the tree.

Petrification takes place as the spore spaces in living tissues of the wood are replaced by minerals, through a process of per mineralisation mineral-laden water seeping through the tissue of the once-living wood and creates an internal cast cell by cell. In this way the wood is preserved at a microscopic level, minerals form on the cell walls and eventually fill each cell preserving the internal structure of the tree and replacing the whole body by the process mineralisation.

Genus: Petrified Araucaria araucana wood. (Araucariaceae).
Age: Early Triassic, approximately 220 to 250 million years.
Origin: Ambilobe, Madagascar.

Araucaria tree measurements.
Height: 107 cm / 3.5 ft / 1.07m
Width: 30 cm
Depth: 28 cm

Estimated weight: 100 - 120 Kg