Search the Community

Likely nothing but thought it was pretty neat. Hopefully someone can tell me about it.

I found this piece a while back and picked it up due to its strange shape even though I couldn't identify it. I've mostly focused on learning how to ID Pleistocene fauna since that's mostly what I find. But now I'm trying to learn more about other things I may be overlooking. In several views, this looks like petrified wood to me. But the back view makes it look like it could just be weirdly shaped chert. One way or another, I haven't found anything quite like it. Hoping someone can help. @JohnJ Pic 1: Front Pic 2: Front view from the bottom Pic 3: Front view from the top Pic 4: Top Pic 5: Back Pic 6: Bottom with Inclusions Pic 7: Side view with close-up of Inclusions Pic 8: Opposite side view

Yesterday, I was looking at this thread . And it reminded me of a piece a picked up back when I first started hunting. In many ways it resembled chert or possibly petrified wood, but the most notable difference was the sound. It makes a ringing sound when struck by metal. It even makes a distinctive high pitched 'tink' when I just tap it with a fingernail. Yesterday I told @FranzBernhard that I thought it was lighter weight than petrified wood. Now that I've managed to dig out the piece, I realize that the weight isn't necessarily different than petrified wood, but the high ringing sound that it makes creates the illusion that it's lighter weight. The strange sound and boxy breaks at edges almost made me wonder if it was man-made, but the grain resembles petrified wood or natural stone rather than any type of ceramic. This is one of the largest examples I've found, but I see little blocks of this from time to time that all sound the same.

I've been digging through my Un-ID'd boxes and found this small piece. I picked it up in southeast Texas. I picked it up because it had very interesting cross hatching. I haven't been able to figure out what it could be. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

i was out hunting white river fossils on a paid ranch near chadron nebraska. found an area with occasional typical mammal and turtle fossils but also large amounts of these layered agatized rocks that I hope are petrified wood. also found were occasional yellow brown translucent "melted wax" pieces that I was told was derived from sap. I thought this is great and brought enough home and now I wonder is it petrified wood or if it purely geological. Please take a look and tell me what you see. there are other areas of badlands within her ranch that have clearly agatized mammal bones, and other areas with purely geological layers of agate and crystal.

I found this rock with these cylindrical shapes in Little Glasses Creek north of Kingston Oklahoma. At first I thought it looked like a tabulate coral but since it is a Cretaceous site it must be something else. It may be geologic in origin but if so I would still like to know what it's called. The portion of the rock showing in the photo is about 140mm long and the tubes/cylinders are about 30mm long. Some are rounded on the end and others broken off square.

A friend of mine who runs a rock shop acquired a large batch of fossils and other items, and asked if I could help ID them. I've been able to identify most of them, but there are a few I'm unsure about. At least one of them seems to be a non-fossil geologic item. Some of these were acquired without provenance details. I'm sure my friend would be content to have it down to the genus level, if possible.