Search the Community

Hello, I had a brilliant Idea and I wanted to share it with you guys. Here is the rundown: I have a good friend, (not a girlfriend,) in Utah. I want to make something for her for the holidays. I decided to try to make a necklace for her with a piece of Petrified Wood as a pendant. Attached is a picture of the piece I am using. I thought about using one of my Gastropods as the pendant, but I passed because I only have 2 Gastropod fossils. My smallest fossil fish are too big for a necklace. Well, that is my gift idea. I just wanted to share it. What do you guys think? Jared

I moved up to South Hills, a suburb of Charleston, a few years ago and started hunting for fossils in the nearby creeks. The Charleston area is generally not great fossil territory, but I struck gold in Lick Branch. The creek is chock full of sandstone-replaced coal plants, mainly Stigmaria and Lepidodendron. I have pulled about 40 specimens out, the best one being the Stigmaria shown below.

Found in pacific city Oregon. My daughter found this on the beach and thought it was a cool fossil rock. After getting it home I noticed the rings and I am fairly certain it is petrified wood but what are the holes? Some are hard packed with sand (rock hard, cant break it up) and others have crystals in them. This area is well known for agate, not sure if that has anything to do with it. Very unique, if it is truly petrified wood I have never seen any like this.

Found this near Sealy on the Brazos River. Any ideas what this could be? Fossilized pine cone or shoot of a palm tree? Or just petrified wood shaped by the river?

Dinosaur Park in Laurel, MD, is a tiny, 7.5-acre tract of county parkland surrounded by a business park in bustling, suburban Maryland. Nevertheless, it is the most prolific dinosaur and plant site east of the Mississippi. The first fossils there were found in the 18th century by slaves in the siderite (bog iron ore) mine that was there at the time. It wasn’t until 1858 that the bones turning up in the mine were identified as dinosaur remains. The bones found that year were from what would have been, if they a had done all the paperwork, the second dinosaur identified in the US, Astrodon johnstoni, which is now Maryland’s State Dinosaur[1] . Since then dinosaurs, turtles, small mammals, crocodilians, gastropods, clams, and tons of fossil plant material have been found there, all of it now at the Smithsonian. The site is part of the Arundel Formation, dating to the Lower Cretaceous, 115 mya, when the place was an oxbow lake. Tributaries were strong enough to wash dino bones into the lake. The fossils there are disarticulated wash-out. Whole skeletons are not generally found or expected here. The exposed hillside consists of a mix of fine grey soil, siderite bog iron and lignite (coalified fossil wood the consistency of charcoal). The lignite and siderite form a thin, dense gravel layer. The challenge for visitors and paleontology volunteers alike is to find the pale blue bones and shiny teeth in the cacophony of black and orange. Collection is done almost exclusively by surface scanning. If something large turns up by way of erosion, then they cordon it off and dig it out. Anything other than the wood is documented with the finder’s name and sent to the Smithsonian. Visitors may keep one palm-sized piece of fossil wood if they like. My husband and I met a friend and her two daughters there today. It was cold, but sunny. There were harsh shadows on the ground, which are supposed to make it easier to pick out shiny teeth. I find the contrast too harsh to see details. The park is open from noon to 4 every other Saturday. We got there close to 1 and spent a couple hours there, despite the chill in the air. I didn’t expect to find any exciting fauna. That’s usually our daughter’s job, and she was at work. I was engrossed in the lignite and the siderite plant impressions, hoping maybe to find a seed cone or two for their collection. Apparently, a handful in a day is not unusual there. I had no luck on either score. I did find a nice plant impression in the siderite. Looks like tree bark. I asked if that could be the one I took home. The volunteer looked at me sternly and asked, "Do you now what it is?" "Tree bark impression in siderite, but I don't know from which tree." “What do you do for a living?” “Artist.” “What do you do that will prove to me that this will be used for educational or scientific purposes?” I told him about my fossil blog and the homeschool paleontology series I just ran at my local library. He was convinced. Now I have it at home, but I may offer it to the Delaware Museum of Natural History, where I volunteer. Each of the girls also found something nice, albeit smaller, to bring home. Unsurprisingly, most of the other kids were disappointed because they didn’t find dinosaur teeth. There was a list at the registration table of maybe a dozen interesting things found today. As far as I know, no one found anything interesting while we were there. Some days go like that, but I was not disappointed. It was a good afternoon to see someplace new. [1] Maryland has both a State Dinosaur and a State Fossil. The State Fossil is a gastropod, Ecphora gardenera.

L.S., Recently I was involved in a study on the growth of native copper porphyroblasts in a sample of mine prop wood from a Bronze Age copper mine on Cyprus. While the paper approaches the subject from a mineralogical/structural geological rather than a paleontological point of view, it might still be of interest to some of you. For a limited period of time, the paper can be downloaded freely via the following link: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1a0ShhdGqSQ49 The work describes how the formation of copper porphyroblasts in the mine prop wood has locally deformed the tracheid microstructure. This is significant, because the deformation suggests that the native copper formation involved so-called 'displacive growth'. Simply put, the copper crystals must have exerted mechanical force on their environment in order to make room for themselves to grow. This phenomenon is known as the 'force of crystallization' and can be observed under specific laboratory conditions (see e.g. Wolterbeek et al. 2018), but it is generally very difficult to unequivocally prove displacive growth and force of crystallization-driven processes played a role in natural samples. Kind regards, Tim

I am new to the site and fossils. My son (7) is very interested in fossils. We are planning to go to Glen Rose, Texas this spring. However, He is really wanting to search and find petrified wood in the near future. I do not know where to begin. We live in Tyler, TX and want to go somewhere, we will be able to easily see and find petrified wood and fossils. I am a bad amateur and could really use some help in where to take my son. If anyone knows please help me out

I found this is there anyway this is petrified wood.

This is part of my collection I have acquired over the past year new to TFF just wanted to say hello to everyone. Many of other fossils packed away as I build more cases

Hello, new here. I found this off the side of the highway 95 near the Nevada/Oregon state line. I’m thinking it’s petrified wood, but I don’t know enough to be certain. Your help and opinions would be greatly appreciated! It’s pretty heavy and hard, smooth on 5 sides and rougher on one. A strange thing, could just be environmental, the “rough” side of the rock has a strange smell, kinda of like old cooking oil. photos of “sides” attached. I’ll add photos of top bottom and a few others in comments.

So we have yet another unidentified mazon creek fossil. I see two possible specimens here but I’m not convinced either are proper fossils or even what they could be. The larger one looks like wood to me, and the smaller one looks darker and oddly shaped. I first thought maybe a flat worn?

I found this in schuyler county, Missouri about 3 or 4 miles from lancaster a few weeks ago. My grandson would like to take it to school but I felt we needed a bit more information. I am not even positive it IS petrified wood and amber. Whatever it is, I think it's extra pretty!

I have started to collect a few things from a older lady and wanted to share. The large piece of petrified wood is 8” across and 3” thick. The fish I have been wondering if they were the same kind? Love the bug/ mosquito or not sure what to call it. these were found 50+ years ago.

I've collected bucket loads of petrified wood from my family's land in central Texas, but have never found a piece with amber on it. I'm not incredibly keen on sticking a hot needle on it since this is the only specimen I've ever found like this. It doesn't seem to be agate. I can't find many publications on it. Can anyone tell me if this is actually a bit of amber on here or where I can read more about it?

While I am more knowledgeable about fossils than when I joined, this thing is confusing me. It is porous with fine holes and appears to be bone, but it could be wood. Any clues?

So I am new to this forum and I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. Also just an FYI I know practically nothing about fossils other than I think they're really cool. I found this rock at my old home in Geauga Gounty Ohio. I was doing some regrading around the foundation of the house when my shovel hit this thing about 2 feet underground. I am certain that it is petrified wood but how it got there is what has me scratching my head. Soil type is a silt loom (mahoning silt loom) the property in the front of the house is classified woodland wetlands. Water table is about 28" below the surface. Not what I would picture when I think of good fossil hunting grounds. So my questions are: - Is it common to find petrified wood in this type of wet clay environment? - Is there any way to determine what type of tree or shrub this may have been from? - If you look close at the picture you may be able to see what I believe are fossilized bug butts that have burrowed holes in this piece of wood. Any thoughts on that? I really wish I could have uploaded more photos but one put me right up to the limit.

I had purchased some petrified wood that was cut into book ends. The blade marks were quite rough. After some effort on my flat lap, to my amazement this half had an image of a man and a dog. I named it Elvis and the Hound Dog. The other half was all black. The piece originated from Sweet Home, OR. I think it is quite the find. I was wondering if others have found pictures in their fossils/rocks. I know picture stone is known for patterns, but images are on another level.

My girlfriend, Valerie and I planned a two week trip to New Mexico and Colorado to visit friends, see scenery, and attend the Peach Festival in Palisades. Of course fossil collecting would be a part of it. I spent a full day with PFOOLEY outside Albuquerque in the Puerco Valley hunting ammonites in the Carlile Member of the Upper Cretaceous Mancos Shale.

Hi all, I am at Malaysia right now, at a fossil-bearing site. Are these wood fossils? - Andy

Found this sticking out of a creek bed. The smaller piece was directly under the larger one, but it doesn't appear to have broken off. It just has a similar structure. I can't figure out if it's wood, coral, tooth, horn, etc. We have a little of each around here (just north of Austin, TX) but mostly marine fossils. In 5 years I haven't come across one that looked like this though. Closest thing to the interior structure I've found is bison tooth. Any ideas?

I need help identifying these, they are everywhere here in Marseilles but I don’t know what they are

Okay so now that I have found a group of individuals to help me identify.... I would love to know what find of petrified wood I have collected.. species and mineralization would be helpful. I have stuff that I can't find online. I'll start with the first two that I can't even tell if they are wood or not... All help is incredibly appreciated. Found these two river tumbled pieces south of Green River, Utah. Jurassic I think? Very different from everything else in the field.. Looks agatized? Thank you! Trenton

Finally gave up and had to ask questions. These are from southeastern PA, found in a creek. There's quite a bit of chalcedony mixed with what looks like wood, do we have petrified wood here in PA? Some looks a lot like bark although a few seem to be just sedimentary rock ( not posted ). There's also a lot of conglomerate around here, not incredibly interesting then picked up a piece I've never come across before. It's around 4", the other only just over 1" There's no debris on it, the random pieces in the chalcedony are as solid as the rest. If it isn't wood is it something else with organic origins? Then there's this. Piece of pine cone, along the right bottom edge? What is the long piece at the top? Most conglomerate around here is composed of agate and quartz, these are brand new to me. There are quite a few more like the top images, only one like the third. If these don't qualify as fossils, sorry to have posted them in a fossil forum!

I just inherited a large pink petrified piece of wood anybody know where it might be from sorry I have no info.

Hello, So, I was looking in my collection, and I found this. Its the first fossil I ever found. Found it in my backyard in Nampa, Idaho. I was looking at it today, and I was beginning to wonder if it really was petrified wood. I mean, it didnt look that much like it. It looks more like a crystal. While I was getting a picture under my magnifier, I discovered that it had lines like wood grains going in one direction. I never noticed them. The thing is you can only see these lines under a magnifier at maximum magnification. They are that faint. I have two questions. First off, is this really petrified wood? Second, if it is, why is it so black? I have never seen petrified wood this color. Any help will be appreciated, Jared