Chinese geographers have discovered two large petrified trees in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The two fossil trees are 17 meters and 11.5 meters long, respectively, and the capitulum of each of the trees has a diameter of 1.05 meters and 1.15 meters. They were discovered in the Gobi area in Yiwu County, the Hami Prefecture.

Han Yaoguang, a research fellow with the Geology Institute under the Xinjiang Academy of Sciences, said the fossilized trees belong to the Tertiary period and the trees are at least 150 million years old.

The Junggar Basin in Xinjiang is rich in fossil wood. The Qitai County alone boasts 11.65 square kilometers of fossil wood. The local government has worked out regulations to protect the fossil wood from damage.

(Xinhua 05/21/2001)