Mississippi Petrified Forest
Encyclopedia
Petrified Forest
A petrified forest is a forest in which tree trunks have fossilized as petrified wood.Petrified Forest may refer to:*Lake Macquarie Petrified Forest, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia*Mississippi Petrified Forest, Mississippi, United States...
located near Flora, Mississippi
Flora, Mississippi
Flora is a town in Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,546 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Flora is located at ....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is currently privately owned and open for public visitation. The forest is believed to have been formed 36 million years ago when fir and maple logs washed down an ancient river channel to the current site where they later became petrified. It is the only petrified forest in the eastern United States. It was declared a National Natural Landmark
National Natural Landmark
The National Natural Landmark program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only natural areas program of national scope that identifies and recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in...
in October 1965.
The site features a museum with examples of petrified wood
Petrified wood
Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of permineralization...
found in every state and from other countries. The samples include a variety of plant materials, including leaves, fruits, cones and bark. Other fossils and fossil casts are on display, including dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
footprints, whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
bones and turtle shell
Turtle shell
The turtle shell is a highly complicated shield for the ventral and dorsal parts of the turtle, completely enclosing all the vital organs of the turtle and in some cases even the head. It is constructed of modified bony elements such as the ribs, parts of the pelvis and other bones found in most...
s.