The fossil trees at Specimen Creek in the Yellowstone Petrified Forest
show common tree ring signatures, indicating that they all lived at the
same time. This rules out the conventional interpretation that the trees
in successive layers all grew in place and were covered by successive
volcanic eruptions.
Source:
Arct, Michael J., 1991 (Dec.). Dendrochronology in the Fossil Forests of
the Specimen Creek Area Yellowstone National Park. Ph.D. dissertation,
Loma Linda University.
Morris, John D., 1995. The Yellowstone petrified
forests. Impact 268 (Oct.).
http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=397
Response:
The signature series of tree rings which Arct used to establish
commonality between trees is too short, spanning only five years. The
actual tree ring widths given in his data show too little correlation
between samples to support his conclusion (Arct 1991, 5,18,20).
Arct attributed non-standard causes to his signatures: "[I]t
appears that the Yellowstone signature is a result of a pronounced
sensitivity to the intra-annual availability of water as recorded in
young trees" (Arct 1991, 56). Instead of being signatures which
occur over several rings growth, his are within one year's growth.
This is not as good a signature set.
Arct's data indicate that the trees did not all die in the same year
(Arct 1991, 38), thus ruling out the possibility that they were
uprooted and later deposited by a common event.
There is other evidence, such as paleosols and in-place roots, that the
trees fossilized in place (Fritz 1980; 1984; Yuretich 1984a; 1984b).
Arct, Michael J., 1991 (Dec.) Dendrochronology in the Fossil Forests
of the Specimen Creek Area Yellowstone National Park.
Ph.D. dissertation, Loma Linda University.
Fritz, W. J., 1980. Reinterpretation of the depositional environment of
the Yellowstone "fossil forests". Geology 8: 309-313.
Fritz, W. J., 1984. Comment and reply on "Yellowstone fossil forests:
New evidence for burial in place." Geology 12, 638-639.
Yuretich, R. F., 1984a. Yellowstone fossil forests: New evidence for
burial in place. Geology 12: 159-162.
Yuretich, R. F., 1984b. Comment and reply on "Yellowstone fossil forests:
New evidence for burial in place." Geology 12: 639.
