Search the Community

I found a nice exposure of the Arundel Clay recently. For those who don't know, the Arundel is an early Cretaceous unit known for it's dinosaur, plant, and other fossils, and is the only source of early Cretaceous dinosaurs east of the Mississippi River. I've been hitting the sites a fair bit over the past several weeks, finding a lot of really nice lignified and fossil wood and even some leaf imprints, amber, and what might be the imprint of a piece of bone or shell in a lump of clay. However, I recently found this specimen which has perplexed me. To start off; I'm fairly certain these are fossils. I just can't tell what of. They look similar to petrified wood, however I have not seen such fossilization of the other wood fossils from this site (or elsewhere from this unit). It appears to be silicified/agatized. I know dinosaur remains have been claimed to have been found near this site, including pieces of a leg bone that the finder originally mistook for wood (I can't verify if that's true or not, however). The Arundel is also well known as a dinosaur bearing unit, however I haven't heard/seen of agatized remains from it. After a quick search online it is possible, and my specimen at least bears a superficial resemblance to pieces of agatized bone from the Morrison Formation. Unfortunately my piece is too weathered to really see any features typical of bone in cross section, like a "sponge texture" or "webbing." Along the edge of the piece there is a bumpy, almost crystalline (for lack of a better word) texture, but nothing specific. I've included an image of a typical fossil wood specimen from this locality to compare this piece with the fossil wood.

Several years ago a few friends and I went out to southeastern Utah for a week of landscape photography. We weren’t there to explore for fossils, but at one location, a place called Andy Miller Flats, I found abundant petrified wood. Whoever named the place must have been an unscrupulous land agent hoping to dupe unsuspecting easterners into buying “a place out west.” The only thing flat here will be your car’s tires after you drive carelessly over its unimproved dirt roads. It really is remote. When I wrote my book Outdoor Navigation with GPS I used the photo of the solo hiker below as a chapter header in the section about recovering from disaster. I will give you a brief flavor of the trip and even give you approximate GPS coordinates because I know most of you will never get there and those who do will be sensible collectors. Petrified wood is abundant throughout southern Utah but you need to be aware of collecting laws. You can collect small amounts for personal use within lands managed by the BLM, but not in national parks or recreation areas. The part of Andy Miller Flats we visited straddles the line between the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and BLM lands. I kept only a few pieces (I was already lugging heavy camera gear), all collected north of the park boundary. To get there, we drove east on Utah 24 from Capitol Reef National Park and turned south on US95 at Hanksville. About a mile before crossing the Colorado River at the towering steel arch bridge near Hite, we took a dirt road heading east. After many miles, this road eventually reaches the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park, one of the most remote locations in the continental United States. Well before that, though, the road turns into a rough four-wheel-drive trail. We didn’t need 4WD for our journey, but high clearance was important. We took the road about 9 miles, traveling along the west side of Rock Canyon, a usually dry gully. The location I show on the map is north of the park boundary. The petrified wood is in the floor of the gully, scattered among the rocks. A lot of it is black, although some, like the piece in the photo, is reddish brown. I believe it is Araucarioxylon arizonicum, which is the primary wood found in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. Here is an interesting link to a paper about that wood: Araucarioxylon arizonicum. I’m not an expert, so if anyone has a different opinion, let me know. The descent to the gully floor is challenging, so be in good shape and don’t go alone. It was about a 100-foot drop where we went in, mostly a relatively easy descent, but with one area where I first had to lower my pack into the gully, then carefully ease myself down. There were enough pieces of wood along the floor of the canyon that I could have built a petrified wood campfire if I had the right kind of matches. Like always when descending into Utah slot canyons, check the weather first and don’t descend whenever rain is predicted anywhere in the area. Here are some photos of the area and one of the pieces of wood. Sorry I don’t have more, as I said this was not originally intended to be a fossil-collecting expedition so I didn’t document that part very well. View of Rock Canyon from our campsite along the dirt road Hiking down into Rock Canyon Map of southeastern Utah showing the location of Andy Miller Flats Snip from USGS 7.5 minute map showing approximate parking spot to access petrified wood. The dashed line near the center of the map is the northern boundary of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Collect only north of that line. Sample of petrified wood

From an old collection of US domestic petrified wood pieces from various locales, this piece did not carry any identification, and internet searches have been surprisingly shy of items that resemble it. The color in the pictures is true, and there is no fluorescence in lw or sw UV light. Has anyone seen anything resembling it?

I feel like these may be something plant related because of the structure, small dots on the one piece, and the leaf print I see on a couple of the pieces. I found several pieces similar to these in the same area . Some are really dark and heavy/dense. Some look squared off or broken off at the bottom. They just look uncommon or unlike the other rocks found around that area. Found in a river in mid Ohio area. Any ideas ? Thanks for all your help!

Found this at the edge of a shallow stream bed that flies down from Smoky Mountain region in East Tennessee at Indian Boundary Lake near Tellico Plains Tennessee at edge if Cherokee National Forest. It measures 2" long, 1.75" at widest 1/2" deep at deepest. A bit more flat on one side. Cross section shows a thin outer layer. Outside look reminds me of wood but I don't know. Looks like photos too big so I will load another below.

I enjoyed a productive weekend hunting petrified wood in the Triassic age, approximately 210 mya, Newark Supergroup of Pennsylvania. The first 2 photos show a single specimen's 2 sides, illustrating profuse checking in the wood, and a likely rotten dead limb knot at top. Specimen weighs 19 pounds.

Just found this on a morning stroll on a beach near Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK. Thought at best it may be a piece of reptile bone, maybe a piece of wood if not. Saw some nice plant material too, we were going to pick the larger pieces up on our return trip but the incoming tide made us decide against it. Thanks for looking

I found all these pieces in arapahoe county Colorado. I’m not sure where I found #2 just in Colorado. I polished a couple of them, 10-16. Is it possible to determine type of wood or approximate age?

Hello! I found this a while back around Melbourne, FL on the beach. I've gotten two guesses on what it is, whale bone fossil and petrified wood. I originally thought petrified wood too but there's a spot on the inside where there's not so much of the gray... sediment? and I feel like it might be bone structure, the brown lines? I'll show what I mean at the end. And thanks in advance! This was my first actual beach find and I know almost nothing so I'd love to hear anything you guys can tell from it! (The brown lines around the top) And an example I found online below, the one on the right has lines like it.

Need some ID help please. Found on the beach in South Carolina. Roughly 2” by 1.5”. Thanks.

I am taking a family vacation out to Sedona and saw that the Arizona Petrified Forest is close by so I'm planning a half day out that direction. Does anyone recommend a good place to look for that nice red petrified wood that you can keep? I know the park is off limits to collecting but assume there are places close by that you can collect.

Looking to have growths id present on late cretaceous wood. The growths are the scales present on the wood. They appear to have been growing between wood layers. Wood is partly carbonized and not fully mineralized. Wood was drift wood mixed in with baculites and scaphites. Fossil taken in situ from upper part of Kevin mb of Marias Fm in Montana.

I'm wondering if it's really the petrified woods. It's found in ironstone concretions from Dakota Sandstone (Cenomanian), and it strikes me as 'woody'. I'm interested in what others think. From different trip and different site few months ago, but same formation and age.

Hello Fossil Forum! I love rocks and rock hounding (but very amateur) and I look at the ground wherever I go. I picked up these rocks from a few locations in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Most collected over the past year, found in hillsides (not streams). I think that they all look somewhat like petrified wood and was curious if anyone else has found similar samples from this area and/or knows anything at all about them. Thank you in advance for any thoughts, information, and opinions!

Last night I scored! A house threw out a ton of stuff, told my friend stop the truck and have a look see. A big recycle tub had over 50 pounds of rocks and fossils. I have a large hunk of quartz crystals, several with decent clusters of purple crystals (amythist?) A good 2 or 3 pound hunk of petrified wood in great condition, rock solid. A small stalactite and a huge (20 pound?) stalagmite. One is pointed and comes from the ceiling, stalactites are rounded and form on the floor. Also a geode the size of a grapefruit. Geodes are spherical rocks that contain hollow cavities lined with crystals. The name geode comes from the Greek word Geoides, which means "earthlike. I was going to attempt a nice clean cut with my angle grinder and cut off wheel but you really need a diamond blade. So I dropped it on the concrete until it broke into several chunks. It had a good void inside, all bearing small crystals, nothing spectacular though. The Giant quartz crystal, star of the show ^ 2 views of the petrified wood, not a great pic of the end but you can see the rings Small one is the stalactite, larger one is the stalagmite. Part of the geode. the purple ctystals.

Hello and good evening! I have passed this fossil a few times and it resides in a large limestone slab. I believe it could be a spine due to presence of Chondrichthyan teeth in the area and how it appears to come to a point. For reference the teeth I have found include teeth from Petalodontiformes, Eugenodontida, and other Chondrichthyans. I will note I have found some petrified wood in the area, but none in a limestone matrix so it could be a Calamite. Location: Missouri Time period: Pennsylvanian Formation: Muncie creek shale member

Finding the fossilized leaves from Dakota formation (also known as Dakota Sandstone) has been one of my goals for a long time. Today I headed to Ellsworth County, Kansas, where the Dakota Sandstone are located and hunt for the fossilized leaves. Unfortunately it's mostly a bust, but I did find a couple possible wood fossils and a few interesting rocks. I didn't take anything home this time except some pictures and memories. Notice the trees following along the small stream. Interesting sandstone! Interesting ironstone concretion! ...Continued on the next post.

At first I thought it might be the cross-section of petrified trunk but upon a closer inspection, I doubt it's petrified woods. It is not silicified. I wonder if it's a concretion or Liesegang rings? I don't think I have seen something like this in person before. I couldn't get it extracted because it's embedded in the bedrock.

I found these small colorful specimens of naturally polished petrified wood, which over millennia were sandblasted by the strong winds blowing across the Patagonia pampas of Argentina.

It has been 10 days since my trip to Wyoming came to a close. I have done a rough cleaning of my finds and will display some of them for you. To begin with, I had a continuing education class in Jackson. The scenery around the Tetons is truly breath taking. But I was eager to depart and begin a fossil hunting adventure with the 3 free days I had left. I love my bald eagles and found this photogenic pair as I departed town. My first stop was NE of Farson in an attempt to find some petrified palm wood. Here is the "road" which brought me to where I thought I should be. No petrified wood was found but I did put a few specimens in my bucket. I believe these are some algal structures??? They littered the butte that I was hunting on. This was not the start that I wanted, but just enjoying the openness of the Wyoming countryside made up for the lack of finds. I finished the day by taking in this sunset before departing. Tomorrow will be a new day and the fossil gods may be kinder, at least I hope. The next site is south of Wamsutter, and the hopeful finds will be "Turritella agate". This Green River Formation (Lamey Member) fresh water snail species is really Elimia tenera, not turritella. I must thank @jpc for directing me there without a hitch. This site appeared on google earth to be a hop, skip, and a jump from the gravel road. It is MANY MANY JUMPS!!! Had he not told me to continue until I saw these hills, I would have experienced my second failure. As you approach the hills, the road forks and the right fork takes you up on top giving you this view. UP top, Elimia are everywhere, for miles and miles!!! Every dark rock in this next photo' foreground contains them. An individual rock typical of what you see in the previous photo:

What type of rock is this?petrified wood? any help would be appreciated.

My late father found this when clearing land in central Mississippi in the 1980’s. It’s been on his property since then and he always believed it was petrified wood. Can anyone help ID? It measures 27” x 12”.

I found 4 nice good-size specimens of petrified wood, from the Newark Basin Triassic sedimentary deposits, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Photo shows that all pieces are a light chocolate brown color. There is a quarter coin for scale. These are from the same location where I previously found two large specimens, which I posted a few years ago. This material seems to be rather scarce.

Hi there, I found this specimen on a hike outside of Denver, Colorado. It was laying in the middle of the trail. It’s about 10cm long. It has grain that looks like wood or layers like mica. It’s also gold and shiny like pyrite or mica. It’s layers are wavy and it leaves a gold dust behind when handled. It’s stunning when the light hits it. Hoping to identify what it is. Thank you! Lisa

Does this piece of petrified wood contain amber? 20200728_003406.heic 20200728_003610.heic