Happy Fossil Friday!
Friday October 2, 2020
Instructor: Arthur Reed, P.G.
Petrified
Trees on Wave-cut Platform
OTAGO
- Curio Bay the Catlins, New Zealand
A famous Jurassic fossil forest is exposed on the beach.
The fossil forest is lying on a wave-cut platform which has been eroded
into sandstones that were laid down by a river or flood. The logs and tree
stumps on top of the sandstone were once growing in a swampy area on the river
flats. It is thought that they were buried by ancient volcanic mudflows that flooded
over the area from a nearby volcano. The fossil plant species (ferns, cycads
and conifers) show that the climate at the time was semi-tropical. This was
before the arrival of flowering plants.
