Coral or petrified wood? (Big Brook, NJ)

[TRexEliot]

A recent find. Has a texture that could be bark, but I am leaning towards coral.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by TRexEliot

[Carl]

Sorry, not seeing any detail there to suggest a fossil. Could easily be a ubiquitous Big Brook concretion.

[TRexEliot]

@Carl I'm almost sure it's not a concretion, since I've seen many thousands of big brook concretions at this point and this one looks quite different from any I've come across. It was hard to capture in the photos, but I tried my best to get a shot that showed the surface texture, which has a very fine, almost felt-like irregularity that looks similar to some of the surface textures I've seen on modern corals. I'm not very knowledgeable about invertebrates, so I'm not sure what the word is for the textured patina is that grows on the surface of coral, but it looks just like that to my eyes.

Edited July 7, 2021 by TRexEliot

[Carl]

I know color is a risky criterion to use, but I would feel OK ruling our coral based on color here. Fossil coral usually remains calcium carbonate or one of its derivatives leaving it some light color, like grey or tan. This looks phosphatic, which wouldn't be expected from a coral. I'm not sure there is a surface texture here that is very informative.