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This Is Surely A Tough I.d.!


Tennessees Pride

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Now, i've recovered some hard stuff to i.d., but this one has to be in my top 5! Honestly i can't tell if it's botanical or other. It came from a Campanian Cretaceous formation, marine origin. I'm thinking a near shore environment, because lots of the sandstone in the outcrop shows sure signs of wave action...ripples, ect. I've emailed several experts who wouldn't even speculate. Also, the specimen was taken to professor Butterfield @ Freed-Hardeman. After an up close inspection, he was just as baffled as i. Had just never seen anything like it. Has anyone ever seen this stuff?

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--- Joshua

tennesseespride@gmail.com

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Roger

I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who [Rudyard Kipling]

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That's really pretty good Painshill! Do you know what causes sandstone to honeycomb? I'm gonna post some pics of this stuff i've found on larger sandstone sections that appear to be like the leftover remnants of tree branches or something. Like maybe they went through some process in which chemical action kinda disolved them partially or something? Then i have found other branches (?) that appear not to have been disolved, but completely replaced by the iron bearing water that made the sandstone... Edited by Tennessees Pride

--- Joshua

tennesseespride@gmail.com

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Another section that appeared to me to be a branch which had been replaced. It has the honeycomb on the outside, but this isn't a good picture.post-14571-0-74972700-1422131093_thumb.jpg

--- Joshua

tennesseespride@gmail.com

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when I see it black it reminds me of charcoal checkering. the iron look though is baffling. Good to see you posting.

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when I see it black it reminds me of charcoal checkering. the iron look though is baffling. Good to see you posting.

well hey there Plax! Thank you and good to hear from you also sir. I think you have noticed this "stuff" may be the same kind of material as the specimen i posted entitled "What In The World Is This Thing." I've also considered the same thing, and sir, you are certainly correct, i'm mystified myself. Painshill put forth an excellent suggestion, in this case however, it may be different than that. In truth, i recovered this specimen about 500 yards away from the black specimen in the other thread. I lean towards both specimens being the same, though i'm clueless as to what it is. About the same time i recovered this material, i did also finally recover more of the material that was preserved in a black form. (!) With the other black specimens, i've been able to confirm that the black material is positively botanical....it's like some kind of tree-bark or something...strange. i'll post some pics of it when i can. Now the preservation mode or this material here in the sandstone, now that's some strange stuff right there! It's like the water that contained the iron chemical seeped into this "stuff" & completely replaced it but left the original structure perfectly.... i just don't know what to make of it. Edited by Tennessees Pride

--- Joshua

tennesseespride@gmail.com

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The pics of the black lignitic material are'nt that great. That reminds me of what this iron "stuff" would look like after it had become worn smooth on the outside from water flotation= driftwood.

--- Joshua

tennesseespride@gmail.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

This kind of structure reminds me of a leaf cellular structure...

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

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I think that these are impressions of wood in a silt/sandstone. The wood has turned to lignite and dehydrated and checkered. An iron rich cement plus silt and sand has formed a crust around the lignite and worked its way into the cracks of the lignite. Iron rich minerals may even have replaced part of the lignite. Carbon in the lignite caused local reducing conditions that allowed metal compounds such as iron oxides/hydroxides to be preferentially deposited next to and in place of the lignite. I have seen similar impressions in the Cretaceous Paw Paw and Woodbine Formations in North Texas and Oklahoma.

Here are pictures of an impression of a piece of drift wood that was bored by Terridolites clams, AKA shipworms, that I found in the Cretaceous Paw Paw Formation of North Texas. Note the slightly checkered impression at top. Also note the crust of iron rich minerals on the impression and on the bulbous burrows of the Terridolites. Although all the lignite has disappeared, I saw other pieces in the area that still contained traces of lignite like some of your pieces.

I hope that this helps.

post-12000-0-30277200-1424333860_thumb.jpg

post-12000-0-69119500-1424333873_thumb.jpg

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Interesting for sure. It reminds me of boxwood, a rock formation found in some caves in western South Dakota.So I'm thinking more in geological terms. I know where I can get a specimen and if it isn't identified by the time I get home I'll send along some photos for comparison.

Right now I'm braving another 80/0 day in Arizona, but alas vacation time ends (actually I was shopping in Tucson) and I must return to Wyoming by early next week.

JPC if you see this, there are some samples at the Tate (ask Kent). Thanks

Jim

Thanks JPC for your 2cents....next post

Edited by old dead things
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Hi Jim-

It is too fine scale for boxwork. I just saw the Tate samples the other day. It is also too coalified. This one is indeed a tough ID. It looks like a piece of coalified wood with iron rich layers... some kind of weird concretion based on a piece of wood. That's my two cents.

Edited by jpc
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