Are there Fossilized Plants from the Flood?
Dear reader,
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| Petrified log at the Petrified Forest National Park |
Great question! There are lots of plants in the Flood layers of the fossil record—from polystrate plant fossils (fossils that span more than one stratum), like calamites and tree logs, to petrified angiosperm trees (trees that produce flowers) and petrified gymnosperm trees (trees that produce seeds, but no flowers). An example that might be very helpful for you to know about if you travel to Arizona and go to Petrified Forest National Park would be Araucarioxylon arizonicum. Don’t even try to say it! What you need to know is that the petrified logs at Petrified Forest are thought to be a type of conifer tree (like pine trees or cypress trees) that could grow to be 200 feet tall and have a diameter of three to four feet! These trees were probably torn up, buried, and fossilized due to Flood activity (which included a lot of volcanic eruptions, based upon the volcanic ash in the rock layers of those logs). It is possible that they floated in by a huge Flood mudslide to the Petrified Forest where they now sit. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad I wasn’t alive to see that happen!
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