Petrified Termite or ant colony

[Pbassham]

This was near wear (as best I can tell) a tree was struck by lightning or burnt out at least 40 years ago. It is rock but I’ve soaked it but am scared to use vinegar?  Should I chance it? Any idea what it is? It’s 5 inches in Links 4 inches high 3 inches deep this is a close-up picture

[Pbassham]

This is Another. I soaked it for a week and it doesn’t leave dirt on paper even wet. It is the perfect dark brown it SHOULD be mud (of course around here most mud is red). I will say some dead plant like fiber similar to really short grass clippings that are way to dried out did come out but considering everything buried down there I’m not sure it was “IN” it and not “on” it. Could it be like the inner mold of something?

[Pbassham]

Picture of one of the little holes using the magnifying option on my phone, then when I hit edit it gave me options like blue/white, red/black, yellow/blue and I could invert it.  So I did... it looks like coconut fibers mashed into mud, or wet muddy wasp nest? Like I said it’ll probably stay a mystery, but to be on the safe side I’m not letting near wood! We do NOT need an ancient mutant termite/ fire ant  hybrid running around with the corona virus!

[Micah]

What you seem to have there is a rock made up of what looks to be tiny bits of crushed up shells and other marine sediment. The holes in the rock are most likely made by clams if you’re curious look up Pholad Borings.  The fact that it was by a tree that got struck by lightning is just a coincidence.  For any future postings make sure you include geographically where you found your fossil as that makes a huge difference when attempting to ID any fossil.

[Rockwood]

5 hours ago, Pbassham said:

Could it be like the inner mold of something?

Actually the mold preserves features of the external surface of an inclusion. Therefor it is called an external mold.

In this case I'm leaning toward it being  clasts of some sort that have dissolved away and not fossils.

[Pbassham]

Thank you! Sorry I forget this site isn’t like Facebook with all your information out there for the world to see.  I live in North Alabama, Rogersville to be exact. This area is known as Muscle Shoals (It started out as Mussel but they claim they changed it due to the strength of the water before all the dams were built) just about on the banks of the Elk River. I can look out over the River and see Limestone County. I know all of area was under water way back when, but by the time the Natives settled it was all trees, freshwater creeks and rivers and just paradise. It was sacred and had quite a few Indian skirmishes, later Chief Doublehead would sell the land to the government keep the money tell his people that the white man didn’t pay and lead massacres even against the fort (Fort Hamilton)his brother Chief Colbert has him killed for killing a little that Colbert had promised would be taken to safety if the parents surrendered.  They did but as the little boy sat behind Colbert in the horse, Doublehead smashed his head in. He didn’t even have the decency to wait until his parents were killed.  That was last thing they saw.  It wasn’t the killing, it was the fact that Colbert had made a promise. The town is named after Samual Rodgers, and his brother Andrew. Samuel was the only non native person involved in Doublehead’s assasination(and the only one who lived) he ran so he’s not in the Wikipedia page.  Rogersville is normally lucky during tornado season.  Being surrounded by the bodies of water usually keeps us safe.  We get bad wind and uprooted trees, but the towns on the other sides of the water have been destroyed.This year we have flooded to the point that people’s septic tanks are useless and normally lush green lawns have a layer of sand that’s floated up (I guess, because the rivers are fine thanks to the dams and TVA.  The rains brought new fossils and crystals up and the uprooted trees brought some Huge rocks under and in the roots. So we have found some gorgeous crystals and lots of crinoid stems some nice Archimedes screw fossils and a ton of beautiful blue and pinkish flint pieces that   Looked to be knapped almost into complete arrow heads. A few scrappers and grinding sets from either the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee or Creeks.(it went back and forth for generations. Also Lambs Ferry beside my house (1810?) was the second most important river crossing from Mississippi to Georgia and was taken and retaken in the civil war until a civic minded group threatened a certain famous Confederate Calvary leader who went to sack Athens at the railways instead. I know you didn’t need that much info, but it’s just illustrating what all finds can be mixed together in a 2 foot square in my yard lol.  Such as pictured. I’ll take a better picture when the sun comes up, but for now it is the size of a softball (11’ not 13’) is heavily corroded feels like iron and is hollow with the pictured “pucker”.  I’d like to think cannonball, but we’ve dug up whole cars back in the woods near where this was found.  Iron dyes everything it seeps near to red and yellow and we have limestone, chalk even some old attempts at gold mining. About 20 minutes away are tons of rock quarries higher than buildings and still being quarried. We have caves and in Red Bay they’ve dug up dinosaurs.  It’s named Appalachiosaurus, kind of nerdy name (not as tough as T Rex). I apologize for the long history lesson.  I love history and this town.  I’m not good at fossils yet, but I can find, restore, and get an abandon cemetery from the 1700s like a champ!

[Pbassham]

Wow!! That’s it, except I don’t have that wet gross squishy looking thing in mine (do I?) Yep,  it’s not coming in the house!that is awesome, I wish Google Image Search was half as good as y’all. Thank you and I should’ve thought about the blackness before saying burnt, it could’ve been just old rotted or moldy but it was deep and not connected to a visible living tree or even a stump.