Fossilized Wood or Stone?

[BLT]

I found this in a creek in middle Tennessee. I’m wondering if it is just a rock or if it could be petrified wood? Thanks!

[Fossildude19]

Stone, for me.

[BLT]

Thanks, @Fossildude19!

[BLT]

I’m assuming these are pictures of chert, but thought I’d ask, just to be certain. 

[Innocentx]

What's exposed here looks like chert.

[BLT]

Thank you, @Innocentx! 

[Innocentx]

[Rockwood]

Not a knot. 

[BLT]

This is another pic of the same rock. (I originally posted this back in July.) After cleaning it and getting better pictures, I am still left pondering the area circled in red. Any thoughts on it? (It was in my yard in middle Tennessee when I bought my home, which is in the Mississippian with St. Louis Limestone & Warsaw Limestone.)

[ynot]

That is a dimple in the surface of the chert. Do not see it as a fossil.

[BLT]

Chert surface dimples? .... Gotcha. (At least I think I do.) I will have to look that one up. Thanks once again!  

[ynot]

The surface of a chert nodule can be very smooth or quite rough.

Your piece looks to be on the excessively rough side. Where it has lost the rough surface it looks fairly smooth, but that is from weathering or breakage that removed the rougher surface. Or it could be natural variation in surface texture.

There was probably an iron oxide (or other mineral) that was forming along with the area that became the surface of the chert.

In the area You circled there was a depression in the chert and the raised area around that has been worn down to make a "dimple".

I could also have used- divot or depression to describe the feature.

[BLT]

Okay, I do believe I understand now. (About time, eh?)  I was under the false assumption that chert would be solid and smooth surfaced. Thanks for taking the time to explain it all! 

[ynot]

6 minutes ago, BLT said:

Okay, I do believe I understand now.

[Killachong]

i asked google, can you find chert in petrified wood, yes. Apperently chert can occcur biologically and chemically, so this could be chert, and pet wood, being chert does not itself rule OUT that it i pet wood. Forgive me if im wrong about this. it looks like pet wood to me tbh.

[Rockwood]

33 minutes ago, Killachong said:

i asked google, can you find chert in petrified wood, yes. Apperently chert can occcur biologically and chemically, so this could be chert, and pet wood, being chert does not itself rule OUT that it i pet wood. Forgive me if im wrong about this. it looks like pet wood to me tbh.

Google is spot on with that. What we need is evidence to distinguish this from the average chert nodule. I don't see any at this point.