Polished wood sections that are exhibited in the Rainbow Forest Museum show to best advantage the varied color pattern of this petrified wood. The piece is first cut with either a diamond or carborundum saw. Then the sawed face is ground as smooth as possible on carborundum wheels of different grits. When ground sufficiently smooth, the final polish is given the surface with hard felt buffing wheels and a polishing compound. Due to the hardness of the petrified wood, it takes about an hour to cut and polish a square inch, hence is an expensive process. Some of the most colorful or “picture wood” specimens make very attractive and durable settings for rings, pins, and other jewelry.
Fossil remains of many forms of animal life that existed here during Triassic times also are found in the Chinle deposits with the petrified wood. Some parts of skeletons were mineralized and preserved in much the same manner as was the wood. The animals which lived where the trees accumulated were forms that normally inhabited muddy, marshy river bottoms, another indication of the type of environment here during that long-gone age.
Largest of these animals was the Phytosaur, a crocodile-like reptile about 18 feet long and weighing nearly a ton. Nostrils were located on top of the head. These reptiles were omnivorous feeders, and with their webbed feet and long flattened tails were at home either on land or in the water. The Phytosaur was a distant relative of the Dinosaur but became extinct before the Dinosaur reached its peak of development.
Another inhabitant of the swampy lowlands where ancient logs were stranded was the Stegocephalian, a primitive amphibian related to modern salamanders, or mud puppies, but of huge size. They were heavy, flattened creatures from six to nine feet long and probably weighed about 500 to 600 pounds. Their legs were very short, and they moved about by dragging themselves over the swampy ground, probably being carnivorous feeders. The skull was almost completely solid and had openings only for the nostrils, eyes, and a peculiar third eye in the top which probably was capable of distinguishing movement or light, but not color.
Several types of fishes, amphibians, and small reptiles probably lived along the streams and in the quiet pools of those ancient marshes. Among them were lung-fishes whose teeth or “dental plates” are now found scattered through the badlands of the Petrified Forest.