Petrified Palm Wood?

[eeyipes]

Found in Parker, Colorado. From what I understand, most pet wood around here is conifer, 55 million years old, Dawson Formation. Palm can be found in the area but is less likely.  This piece is not the prettiest chunk of petrified wood I've found but it caught my eye because of the spotted look. It's the only piece I've ever found with these spots. Did I find a piece of palm wood, or is there something else that would cause a spotted look? (Entire piece is about 5 inches long, I only photo'd the nicer bits that show wood detail. The other half is junky looking.)  Thanks!

[DPS Ammonite]

The first piece is not palm wood because palm wood has many round vascular bundles similar to the Miocene palm wood from California below. Your pieces may be orbicular jasper. The orbs are formed when heat and fluids cause the silica and other minerals to recrystallize. A better close-up photo of an area that you think might be wood grain will help us to ID these as petrified wood.

[FossilDudeCO]

Hey there! @eeyipes

I am in Centennial, just a few minutes from Parker!

While most of the petrified wood found further south towards Colorado Springs is indeed Eocene conifer, the lovely piece you have there is most likely Cretaceous age Cinnamon Tree.

 

These spots are formed from the decomposition of the wood prior to being fossilized. It is thought that the trees fell into standing water and began to deteriorate that is why we don't see lovely rings or any more definition to the wood, rather just strange mashed up chunks and bright colors!

 

Hope this helps!

 

-Blake

[eeyipes]

Thanks for that information! I've found lots and lots of pet wood around here ... with all the construction going on it's not hard to stumble upon. I've been wondering what type of wood it was. About 99 percent of it is this lovely butterscotch/brown/black stuff, except for one or two pieces that are a grey ashy color and seem like they've become some other type of stone. It's hard not to pick it up when you see it, although I'm getting better about not bringing home every random chunk I find 

[FossilDudeCO]

43 minutes ago, eeyipes said:

 It's hard not to pick it up when you see it, although I'm getting better about not bringing home every random chunk I find 

 

I'm terrible, I think I have around 45kg in my garage!

It is really good for things like grab bags though, kids love it!

[DevonianDigger]

Beautiful piece!

[eeyipes]

Yup, I've been joking that I should pass out "rock candy" for Halloween this year I keep a few of the prettiest pieces inside, otherwise the bigger pieces get stacked against a garden a wall like a cord of wood, it actually looks kind of cool that way. I keep hoping to find something fossilized that isn't petrified wood, but so far I've only come up with a single arrowhead (which might be made of petrified wood, lol.)

[abyssunder]

I'm wondering how close would be to Tempskya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempskya

 

http://ncfossilclub.org/~fossil/slideshow_gallery/27

 

[doushantuo]

It's all in the ultrastructure.

Pointers are e.g. size and shape of the vascular bundles,number and placement of metaxylem cells,shape of the sclerenchyma,number and character of the pitting in the

metaxylem,distribution of the phloem,presence of latewood/deadwood,degree of lignification,presence of leaf trace bundles,etc

NB.:Palmoxylon is a pretty artificial genus.