Cerro Cuadrado Petrified ForestAround 160 million years ago in a part of Gondwana (then a superconti

Cerro Cuadrado Petrified ForestAround 160 million years ago in a part of Gondwana (then a supercontinent comprising South America, India, Australia, Antarctica, India and some other bits and pieces) that is now called southern Patagonia, a forest of hundred metre tall relatives of monkey puzzle trees was buried in volcanic ash. An entire forest ecosystem was partially preserved as the ash turnedinto rock, including many large pieces of Auracaria.Discovered in 1919 by German Argentinian botanist who followed up the fossil pine cones he encountered in local farms back to their source, the trees preserve some of the earliest evidence for bracket fungus and wood boring beetles. The cones came from a tree known as Auracaria mirabilis, and it is thought that the long necks of sauropod dinosaurs such as Argentinosaurus may have evolved specifically to browse on these huge tall trees. LozImage credit: Forschungsstelle für Paläobotanik Münster -- source link

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