Going back tens of thousands – and millions – of years. But do these ancient historical roots apply in this case:
Walking past it, this looks like a rock. This is the best angle I could get to capture the proposition that this is the base of an ancient tree. However, the land surface would have been higher then so this would be beneath the surface. I’ve read that trees don’t harden to become fossils: that instead microscopic minerals carried in water enter into the cells of the wood, replacing those cells, and it’s these minerals which harden. I’d love to know if this is an ancient tree. It’s big; the base is about eight feet in diameter. Here’s a close up of the structural webbing that is now rock:
