HURRICANE UTAH PETRIFIED WOOD

We had found an estimated 28-kilogram piece of petrified wood at the Virgin Anticline found near Hurricane, Utah that had exceptional quality. The petrified wood was float that would belong to the Triassic Chinle formation’s petrified forest member (T(r)cp). The piece shows signs of rotting along with insect tunneling, with a knot being preserved in what we believe is the trunk. It seems to have been exposed after fossilization for an extended period of time to allow for desert varnish to occur on the surface of the wood. We believe it to be an Araucarioxylon arizonicum, an extinct conifer, a native of that time period due to how common it is. We believe that it wasn’t completely deposited at first due to an uneven erosion occurring on certain portions of the wood. We intend to further study the fossil so that we may gleam a better understanding of what it is, how it came to be preserved, its features, age and what it was like at the time.