A 70-meter long petrified tree trunk found in Doi Soi Malai National Park, Ban Tak District, has been registered by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest fossilized tree trunk in the world.
The ceremony to announce the registration by the Guinness Book of World Records was held on Friday, July 8, 2022.The trunk was discovered in Doi Soi Malai National Park, Ban Tak District in Tak Province, in 2003.
The trunk was then 72.22 meters long, equivalent to the height of a 20-story building, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
But later, the excavation site was flooded, which damaged its tip and reduced its length to 69.7 meters.
The fossilized trunk, comes from a Koompassia malaccensis Maingay ex Benth tree, which no longer grows in northern Thailand, but is still found in tropical forests in the south of the country and on the Malay Peninsula.
The petrified trunk, which is about 120,000 years old, indicates that Tak Province was once full of ancient forests, an important natural heritage.
The petrified forest park has been named “Tak Petrified Wood Geopark” and is an important tourist destination in the province.
Seven other petrified trunks have been discovered, but they are comparatively shorter.
