Imagine a tree that fell in a forest **millions of years ago**. Normally, it would rot and disappear. But sometimes, it gets **quickly buried** under mud, sand, or volcanic ash. Water full of tiny bits of minerals (like silica from sand or iron from rocks) seeps into the wood. Slowly — over **millions of years** — these minerals replace the wood cells, turning the tree into **stone** while keeping its shape, rings, and even bark texture. That’s **fossilised wood**, also called **petrified wood**. It’s not wood anymore — it’s rock that *looks* like wood!
These stone trees can be **super old** — some from 400 million years ago (when fish were just starting to walk on land!) but most are from 50 to 250 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed. Scientists study the growth rings to learn about **ancient weather** (wide rings = good rainy years, narrow = dry ones). They also tell us what kinds of forests grew where, helping us understand how continents moved and how plants evolved. In India, places like the **National Fossil Wood Park in Gujarat** protect these treasures — some logs are as big as buses! Fossilised wood is like a *time capsule* showing us Earth’s green past, frozen in stone.
This stone is with my son's father-in-law in Kerala..
