In 2003, a small section of a large petrified log was found in a reserve forest at Ban Tak District, Tak Province, Thailand, by a villager. This lead to investigation in this area by officials of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department and many such logs were discovered, leading to a name change of this forest to Petrified Forest Park, in 2006. The region where these fossils were discovered could be traced 1,000,000 years ago from the fossils and stone tools found in Northern Thailand, giving insights to not only prehistoric trees but also the prehistoric man, Homo erectus.
The longest petrified log measured 72.2 meters (237 feet), which suggested the original tree to be more than 100 meters (330 feet) in a wet tropical forest some 800,000 years ago. Interestingly, the highest trees nowadays in Thailand are only around 60 meters (200 feet) tall. The tallest, being a Krabak tree, belonging to theDipterocarpaceae (tropical oaks) species. It was measured to be 58 meters (190 feet) tall.
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