Relict tree about 300 million years old was found in Tuymazy

A petrified tree almost 300 million years old was found in the city of Tuymazy. The relic was discovered by Yuri Pochkulev, a local historian-searcher from the village of Kandry, the Tuymazinsky Vestnik newspaper reports.

Yuri Pochkulev says that he drew attention to the find in one of the quarries. First he found a pile of stone workings. Then Yuri Pochkulev was attracted by a large fragment resembling a tree bark in it.

According to experts, the find is really unique. Local historian Yuri Biryuzov explained that a tree becomes stone after its many years of “preservation” in a vacuum.

“Over the years, groundwater, rich in dissolved solids, replaces the original plant material with minerals. As a result, the tree is conserved, changing at the molecular level,” Tuymazinsky Vestnik quotes Yuri Biryuzov.

Now scientists will study the relic tree. They have to find out what kind of tree it is and determine its exact age.

Geographer Igor Danilko said that the petrified tree was found in the deposits of the Permian period, the Kazan stage, with the age of 270-268 million years.

Let us add that there are four botanical and two complex natural monuments in the Tuymazinsky district. The first group includes Lake Kandrykul and the "Shumilovsky Falls", the second - pine plantations near Kandry, larches in the Verkhnetroitsky forestry, and the population of the lady's slipper plant.