Petrified Forest part of the Northern Arizona Painted Desert |
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National Park
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior |
| You can take a step back in time to 245 million years ago. The "Petrified Forest National Park remains one of the most fruitful places to study the ecosystems of the Late Triassic". "This high dry tableland was once a vast floodplain crossed by many streams. To the south, tall, stately pine-like trees grew along the headwaters. Crocodile-like reptiles; giant, fish-eating amphibians; and small dinosaurs lived among a variety of ferns, cycads, and other plants and animals that are known only as fossils today. The tall trees - Araucarioxylon, Woodworthia and Schilderia - fell and were washed by swollen streams into the floodplain. There they were covered...." from the Great Outdoor Recreation Pages - GORP |
The Petrified Forest National Park web site provides "information that will be timely and of assistance in planning a trip, vacation or obtaining data about this park." |
