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Fossils in coalified pyritized wood


Lone Hunter

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The new Eagle Ford exposure in the creek we've been hunting is littered with various stages of petrified and coalified wood in the marl, Dale found a good size limb and chopped out some chunks which contained fossils.  This is new to me never seen fossils in wood before,  Dale has bigger pieces with bigger fossils and thinks thier some kind of boring clam like Toredo worm, but these look nothing like those to me and I want more details. These are completely shelled and how can something round and smooth bore? Dale's pieces have ones with 'balls' an inch across. On the side of big piece is 2 objects that look different, have no idea what to make of the big blob. I find this fascinating, and so cool each fossil is outlined in gold pyrite.  So what are these things?

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Those are indeed Teredolites sp. clam borings. Note the rounded edge in the deepest part of a boring. The pyrite is very cool. The conditions probably were at least slightly anoxic.

 

You probably need to consolidate these with Butvar B 76 or similar since the wood may not be too stable. Keep fossil dry with a desiccant placed in a plastic bag since there is pyrite present.

 

See:

Bromley, R.G., Pemberton, S.G., & Rahmani, R.A. (1984)

A Cretaceous woodground: the Teredolites ichnofacies.

Journal of Paleontology, 58(2):488-498

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Edited by DPS Ammonite
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My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

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Not at all how I thought they looked going by other pictures I've seen, very strange clams!  This wood is pretty hard and surprisingly stable, but I will take precautions for the pyrite.  How common is it to find fossils in wood I couldn't find any examples?

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16 minutes ago, Lone Hunter said:

How common is it to find fossils in wood I couldn't find any examples?

 

Teredolites is common in North Texas fossil wood. I have found it from the Austin Group on the top down to the Weno Fm. on the bottom. A real find would be to find the clam still in the wood.

 

See Teredolites longissimus, from the Paw Paw Formation at Lake Texoma. 

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/53577-ntx-cretaceous-is-this-a-group-of-seeds-insect-eggs-mineralgeological/&do=findComment&comment=574475

 

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Edited by DPS Ammonite
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My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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I should have been more specific in asking if fossils were common in coalified wood. I have petrified wood with boring holes, these looked like they had shells,  I was assuming it was the clam and not just the burrow.

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7 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

A real find would be to find the clam still in the wood.

I collected quite a few from the same area. Hammer happy day you know. :)

I'm quite certain many of these, especially the smaller ones, do contain shells.

 

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These come from what appears to be the under side of a fair sized chunk. It seems to grade into a limy mudstone, which in places preserves the bore holes.

I suspect the borings provided surface area by which more of the wood was mineralized.

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These are wonderful fossil, aren't they?  These sorts of fossils are also relatively common in Cenozoic rocks of the Pacific northwest of North America, and I have found them in fossilized wood from the Jurassic.

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ichnofossils Teredolites isp.

 

Here is a petwood slice from Australia full of Teredolites, in my collection.

Teredolites_Australia_2.thumb.jpg.908ba0a2d3fefd91072480110597ddec.jpgTeredolites_Australia_1.thumb.jpg.40544b792466dbbe37344c3d21eaedb0.jpg

 

 

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