13.3" Rotten Arizona Petrified Wood Slab With Agate Core

Rotten Arizona Petrified Wood Slab With Agate Core #66175

This is a very interested, 13.3" wide slab of polished Arizona petrified wood. It likely represents a rotten log that fossilized with either more solid knot or branch at the center. The fossilized "rotten wood" has a reddish/pink coloration while the more solid center has a deep red and purple color.

Araucarioxylon Petrified Wood From Arizona

This wood is similar to petrified wood found in the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona. Its petrified forest encompasses nearly 100,000 acres, and is almost entirely represented by the extinct conifer Araucarioxylon arizonicum.

The petrified wood from Araucarioxylon arizonicum happens to be the state fossil of Arizona. It is frequently referred to as "rainbow wood" because of the large variety of colors some specimens exhibit. The reds and oranges come from hematite inclusions within the silica, the yellows from limonite, and the purples from extremely fine hematite spherules.

Araucarioxylon arizonicum is estimated to have grown more than 150 feet high and dominated the tropical forests in what is now Arizona nearly 225 million years ago.