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Showing results for tags 'palmoxylon'.
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This is a piece of late Miocene palm “wood” from Orinda, California. Not a true wood; it is part of the Palmoxylon form genus. Palm wood can rarely be attributed to a palm species identified by foliage or fruit such as Sabal. It was found in a landslide area on top of sedimentary interbeds of the Moraga Formation and the younger lacustrine Siesta Formation sediments. Volcanic rocks and possible spring deposits are nearby. Fossilized palm roots, reeds and petrified wood occur in the area. This piece and others found in the area represent the youngest palm fossils found in Northern California. Cretaceous and Eocene palm fossils are found in Northern California and to the north in Oregon and Alaska. Drying and cooling conditions in the Miocene pushed palms further south where they are found in the Dove Spring Formation near Rosemond, the Barstow Formation near Calico and the Bopesta Formation in the Tehachapi Mountains. The silicified layered coatings on the wood may be spring deposits or stromatolites. Possible hot spring deposits are nearby. This 120 mm long piece looks ordinary until you see a few spectacularly preserved 1 mm fibrovascular bundles with cells and vascular structures visible through a microscope. Photo 1: sharpened photo of 1 mm fibrovascular bundle. Photo 2: labeled fibrovascular bundle; photo not sharpened. 1: vascular tissue. 2: a bundle cap with sclerenchyma cells. 3: sclerenchyma cells. 4: manmade fiber. 5: fibrous bundle. 6: fibrovascular bundle. 7: space for phloem (not preserved) that transport food. 8: xylem vessels that transport water. 9: parenchyma cells groundmass. Photo 3: fibrovascular bundle; photo not sharpened. Photo 4: detail of area 1 in photo 5. Arrow points to best fibrovascular bundle in photos 1-3. Photo 5: side with best fibrovascular bundles. Area 1 detailed in photo 4. Area 2 is a silicified possible spring deposit or stromatolite. Photo 6: other side of photo 5. Area 1 is area of dark fibrovascular bundles. Area 2 is the silicified deposits. Photo 7: 3/4 view showing thickness and white silica coating. Photo 8: exterior with arrows pointing to elongated fibers typical of Palmoxylon. References Good labeled palm fibrovascular bundles in: Steur, Hans. FOSSIELE PLANTEN webpage: https://steurh.home.xs4all.nl/engpalm/epalm08.html Viney, M. (2008). The Virtual Petrified Wood Museum, http://petrifiedwoodmuseum.org Palmoxlylon localities: Ture, Joseph A. (Date?). Fossil Palms in Principes, Vol. 11, International Palm Society, p 54. https://palms.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/v11n2p54-71.pdf Good paper on Northern California Pliocene and now Miocene floras. No mention of palmoxylon in the San Francisco Bay/ Northern California area. Dorf, Erling and Irma E. Webber "Studies of the Pliocene Palaeobotany of California"Contributions to Palaeontology. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 412 (1933) https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.271485/page/n1/mode/2up
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- california
- contra costa group
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What is on the left? It has lines through it like the known palmoxylon (palm wood) on the right but the tubules appear different. Is this also palm wood or something else?
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For your review, here is a specimen of Palmoxylon, sp. (a fossilized extinct palm tree) found in March 2020 in the San Juan Basin of San Juan County, NM. The area is within the Kirtland Formation, Upper Cretaceous Period. This specimen has been cut to show several views of a transition zone in the root ball where adventitious roots or Rhizopalmoxylon, sp. emerge. The first photograph has been diagrammed to show several features in the transition zone. I have also submitted photos of this specimen in the March 2020 "Find of the Month" contest, and a more complete description of the specimen has been made in that entry.
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- adventitious root
- kirtland formation
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A few months ago, I traveled to Jasper, Texas for a family event. On the drive home, I took a side road about fifteen minutes North of Jasper and found a creek that looked interesting. The creek was flowing well, and there was a lot of material in the creek bed with water rushing over it. The attached pictures show specimens that I collected from the creek that day. From the locale and appearance, I had thought these to be Palmoxylon. However, in looking at numerous online images, I wasn’t able to find any petrified palm that looked quite like these samples. I’m thinking that this may just be due to these specimens being extremely weathered, but I’m not sure. I would appreciate identification assistance from those of you with more knowledge in this area. Thanks! Specimen 1: Specimen 2: I've run out of room for pictures in this post, so I'll add one more with an additional view of specimen 2.
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- Jasper
- Palmoxylon
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