Bone, Shell, Enamel?

[ShadyW]

Here's a very pretty fossil I picked up at the North Sulfur River that I just can't work out.

It's been fractured along multiple faces, leaving beautifully polished surfaces which are as reflective and smooth as flint. However, it has a rough, porous texture at one end, and those pores appear to extend down into the polished/shiny bulk of the sample.

The color is a very nice caramel, and not at all what I'm used to from NSR fossils.

My first guess was that it was a thick chunk of tooth enamel, but I don't think enamel has pores like bone. If it's bone, I'm wondering whether it's either from a different era or a different zone, producing a completely different mineralization to "normal" NSR material.

Any ideas?

[MikeD]

It appears to be a piece of petrified palm wood.

[Guest bmorefossil]

It appears to be a piece of petrified palm wood.

yes i agree petrified wood

[MOROPUS]

Here's a very pretty fossil I picked up at the North Sulfur River that I just can't work out.

It's been fractured along multiple faces, leaving beautifully polished surfaces which are as reflective and smooth as flint. However, it has a rough, porous texture at one end, and those pores appear to extend down into the polished/shiny bulk of the sample.

The color is a very nice caramel, and not at all what I'm used to from NSR fossils.

My first guess was that it was a thick chunk of tooth enamel, but I don't think enamel has pores like bone. If it's bone, I'm wondering whether it's either from a different era or a different zone, producing a completely different mineralization to "normal" NSR material.

Any ideas?

It looks very much to the Cretaceous silificated fossil sponge I find in my region.Are there sea fossils there?

[JohnJ]

Shady, I also agree with the petrified palm wood. I've found pieces at different places around Texas that have different mineralization characteristics.