MILLIONS OF YEARS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 3

MILLIONS OF YEARS

PREHISTORIC WOOD

PRESERVED IN BITUMEN

Wood believed by scientists to be from trees which lived between fifty. and ouc hundred million years ago, perfectly preserved through the dim ages by. a' heavy coating of bitumen, has been taken from' tar sand deposits at Fort M'Murray, in Northern Alborta, Canada, and is being studied in botanical laboratories. ' Experts :beli/.'e that the further excavation in the tar sand pits may reveal bodies of the great dinosaurs similarly saved from decay for this distant generation. It is estimated that these marvellous specimens of ancient wood drifted down to the estuary of a prehistoric river at the present site of Fort M'Murray, became embedded in the sand, and were covered with a bituminous coating before decay commenced. Microscopic sections show beautiful grainings and colourings, the growth rings being clearly defined. It is a hard wood of a deep reddish colour with'a grain somewhat' resembling bird's eye maple and is supposed to have belonged to the family from which developed the modern conifers. Professor Francis J. Lewis, botanist of the University of Alberta, believes that so far as palaeobotany is concerned the plants and woods of the M'Murray tar sands are probably the greatest source of supply in the world. Pieces of wood possibly of equal age have been discovered elsewhere, but they are in a petrified state and difficult of study. The M'Murray specimens have come from a pit •utty feet square. Since/there aro laid to be at least eighty-nine cubic miles of similar tar sands the possibilities of . discoveries ■of tremendous importance and interest are causing a good «leal of speculation. •