Opalized/Petrified Bog from northern California

[uluqulu]

Greetings.  I was wondering if anyone here could help identify some of the individual organisms in this specimen.. It is a partially opalized bog material.  I collected it from an area in northern California that is listed (on USGS Geologic maps) as Eocene nonmarine.  I worked this specimen with diamond tools for a bit to better expose the contents.  Thanks!

[ynot]

Most bogs are rich in plant debris. My guess is leaf litter and twigs make up most of this fossil.

Maybe @Doctor Mud will have a better idea.

[Doctor Mud]

Certainly looks like a lot of woody plant material like twigs in an altered peat matrix. Woody material can be common in bogs from shrubs growing on the bog, around the edge of the bog, or if environmental change leads to increased wetness. When we core peat bogs sometimes we hit layers of wood from old forests that were casualties of an expanding bog.

 

There could be all sorts of other things in there like seeds from wetland plants. Smaller things might be hard to identify as diagenesis might have severely distorted things. A thin section might show some interesting things.

@Peat Burns would love to see this and have some insights I'm sure.

[Peat Burns]

As Doctor Mud indicated, it is likely rich in woody debris and other plant fibers and possibly plant diaspores if it originates from an ancient peatland deposit.  It would be interesting to view it under a dissecting scope.  It's a beautiful specimen.

[Plantguy]

What a neat specimen! Agreed looking at that under a scope might show further details. There are some features that appear to be borings/burrows and some angular frags that almost look like shell. Guessing there are micros as well that might show up.  

 

So Norcal is a pretty big area and I dont recall the Eocene slivers up there--been way too long ago. I did run into some material in Napa county but I dont remember the formations. Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone in the geology dept at one of the Univ of Cal locations like Humboldt or Chico that might be somewhat close to you may have run into any similar material and might have some info or want to take a look at it for you. Depending on your curiousity factor you might want to shoot one of the paleo folks an email and see what they suggest. USGS folks might also be ones to pick their brains...Goodluck. 

 

Here's Humboldts faculty

http://www2.humboldt.edu/geology/faculty_staff

 

Here's Chico's faculty list. 

http://www.csuchico.edu/geos/faculty.and.staff.shtml

Regards, Chris