Peruvian Eocene Forest

 
Artist reconstruction of a dry tropical forest with green trees of different heights growing along the edge of the water of the inlet of an ocean. In the distance is a volcanic peak with blue skies behind.
Artist reconstruction of the El Bosque Petrificado Piedra Chamana (The Petrified Forest Piedra Chamana) located in Sexi, Peru.

NPS/GIP Mariah Slovacek

 
All of the represented trees and plants appear in the forest reconstruction above. Based on fossils found in the Petrified Forest Piedra Chamana and reconstructed using their modern relatives, we see what the forest might have looked like during the Eocene.
 
A poster featuring 17 various trees and shrubs with ID labels on a white page, bordered on both sides with images of petrified wood taken with a microscope. At the bottom are pictures of petrified tree trunks and the other is a fossil leaf.
Key of the trees seen in forest reconstruction above. Also included are cross-section microscope images of fossilized wood found at the site

NPS/GIP Mariah Slovacek, Dr. Deborah Woodcock

 
  • Anacardium — cashew genus (Anacardiaceae)
  • Avicennia — black mangrove genus (Acanthaceae)
  • Calycophyllum — capirona (Rubiaceae)
  • Cariniana — genus of emergent forest trees (Lecythidaceae)
  • Ceiba — ceiba, kapok tree (Malvaceae)
  • Cynometra — pantropical genus of canopy trees (Fabaceae)
  • Dodonaea — chamana, hopbush genus (Sapindaceae)
  • Hura — sandbox tree (Euphorbiaceae)
  • Palmae — palms
  • Ochroma - balsa (Malvaceae)
  • Sterculia — tropical chestnut genus (Malvaceae)

Last updated: March 31, 2021

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