Prehistoric plant or chunk of concrete?

[DanielW]

This is about 38cm (14") in length.

About 22 cm (9") circumference. 

Cross section is oval shaped about 5cm x 8cm (2" x 3")

It weighs about 3.2 Kg (7 lb.) 

 

It feels very dense. The surface has pock-marks that look like they could be where leaf stems had attached at one point. 

The cross section doesn't have any features that I think look like vasculature. 

The paint on it happened because it sat on my father's fireplace for years and years, and it must've been dripped on during a repainting of the living room. 

 

My father and I found this on a Boy Scout hike sometime around 1989 in eastern Tennessee. We thought it was interesting so we packed it out. I was a kid at the time, so I don't remember any other details. 

We always just assumed it was petrified wood, and I haven't thought about it for years. However, he recently passed away and I dragged it home to California. Everything about the item looks like a prehistoric plant to me, except the cross section. I don't see any detail of how the plant would've transported water. That part makes me skeptical. But the surface sure looks organic. 

 

Any help confirming or denying that this is an actual fossil would be helpful. 

I hope I included enough detail for my first post. 

Thanks, 

 

[DPS Ammonite]

It has the look of a rather worn Lepidodendron stem. Notice the repeating diamond like pattern. Do you know the age of the layer that it was from?

 

http://sepaleontologia.es/revista/anteriores/SJP (2018) vol. 33/vol. 1/01.pdf

 

  

[Tidgy's Dad]

I think that could be Stigmaria, the root structures of lycopsids such as Lepododendron or Sigillaria. 

Often they are preserved as casts of an empty mould that was formed when the original plant, after being buried in sediment, rotted away. 

This is why no internal structure is preserved in many specimens. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, DPS Ammonite said:

It has the look of a rather worn Lepidodendron stem. Notice the repeating diamond like pattern. Do you know the age of the layer that it was from?

 

Yes, you could be right about it being Lepdidodendron. 

But, OP, the preservation process I described still applies.

[DanielW]

Sorry, I don't know the layer. I'm pretty sure it wasn't buried... but I vaguely remember needing to dig a hole on the hike, if you know what I mean. 

[Thomas.Dodson]

I agree with DPS Ammonite and Tidgy's Dad about it probably being a lycopsid. Because fossils and rocks become free and get deposited elsewhere at times (river movement, erosion, anthropogenic activities) it not being buried doesn't really mean anything. I'm not really familiar with Tenessee's coal production history (North Georgia is known for some deposits) but lycopsids (and many other plants from that time period) are often found in waste deposits from coal mining where the shale overburden is dumped. This is just one possible explanation for your specimen being free of the ground and rock.

[JimB88]

If its not too far east it could be Carboniferous, generally the farther east you go in Tennessee, the older the rocks get. If it was from the Smokies, then most of the rock is metamorphic in nature. Most of the coal mining in Tennessee is done in the Cumberland Mountains, which are west of the Smokies.

[LabRatKing]

Fairly certain this is Lepdidodendron

[DanielW]

Thanks everyone! 

After poking around Google images looking at examples of Lepidodendron, I'm fairly certain it is a Lepidodendron root. the closest image I've seen is here, here, or here. 

Now I can use it as part of my holiday decor secure in the knowledge that I have a ~300 million year old Yule log.

[daves64]

1 hour ago, DanielW said:

Now I can use it as part of my holiday decor secure in the knowledge that I have a ~300 million year old Yule log.

Now that's the spirit! 

[Plantguy]

On 11/30/2020 at 9:57 AM, DanielW said:

Thanks everyone! 

After poking around Google images looking at examples of Lepidodendron, I'm fairly certain it is a Lepidodendron root. the closest image I've seen is here, here, or here. 

Now I can use it as part of my holiday decor secure in the knowledge that I have a ~300 million year old Yule log.

Awesome piece! I also agree with the lycopod root section ID that the others have provided...Stigmaria...

You can see the round to semicircular rootlet scars in a spiral arrangement (like the leaf scars on the trunks) very well in your lower left shot/photo. 

 

Continued hunting success!

Regards, Chris 

[abyssunder]

It's Stigmaria sp., 100℅.