In one corner of the Early Life hall of Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History stand two petrified tree trunks. They are 207 million years old, stony relics of an ancient conifer ...

The trunk that now resides on the Museum's east lawn was uncovered ... It's thought this happened in the 1970s when the Palaeontology wing was being built. The petrified tree is thought to have been ...

These trees where then petrified when ancient volcanic eruptions produced lava flows that spilled into lakes with sunken, waterlogged tree trunks and branches. The excessive water throughout the ...