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[[Image:Stigmaria Bear Valley upright.jpg|thumb|Upright ''[[Sigillaria]]'' in dipping beds of [[Pennsylvanian (geology)|Pennsylvanian]] [[Llewellyn Formation]] in [[Bear Valley Strip Mine]], [[Northumberland County, Pennsylvania]]]]
A '''polystrate fossil''' is a [[fossil]] of a single organism (such as a [[tree trunk]]) that extends through more than one geological [[stratum]].<ref name="MacRae1997a">MacRae, A., 1997, [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/polystrate/trees.html ''"Polystrate" Tree Fossils'']. [http://www.talkorigins.org/ TalkOrigins Archive.]</ref> This term is typically applied to "[[fossil forest]]s" of upright [[fossil tree trunks]] and stumps that have been found worldwide, i.e. in the Eastern [[United States]], Eastern [[Canada]], [[England]], [[France]], [[Germany]], and [[Australia]], typically associated with coal-bearing strata.<ref name="DiMichele+2011a">DiMichele, W.A., and H.J. Falcon-Lang, 2011, [http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/handle/10088/15971 ''Pennsylvanian 'fossil forests' in growth position (T0 assemblages): origin, taphonomic bias and palaeoecological insights.''] Journal of the Geological Society, 168(2):585-605.</ref> Within [[Carboniferous]] coal-bearing strata, it is also very common to find what are called ''Stigmaria'' (root stocks) within the same stratum. [[Stigmaria]] are completely absent in post-Carboniferous strata, which contain either coal, polystrate trees, or both. The word ''polystrate'' is not a standard [[Geology|geological]] term. This term is typically found in [[creationist]] publications.<ref name="MacRae1997a"/><ref name="Gastaldo+1999a">Gastaldo, R.A. 1999. ''Debates on Autochthonous and Allochthonous Origin of Coal: Empirical Science versus the Diluvialists,'' In Manger, W.L., ed., The Evolution-Creation Controversy II: Perspectives on Science, Religion, and Geological Education, The Paleontological Society Papers, v. 5, p. 135-167.</ref>
*whispers*poly-stra-te :P
==Geological explanation==
[[Image:Fossil forest.jpg|thumb|left|Coastal erosion exhumed the fossil forest of [[Takapuna Reef]] in New Zealand when the sea level rose to its current height following the [[last glacial period]].]]
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