Petrified Wood questions

[Kato]

Okay, while on a ramble in the mountains, among other things I chanced upon this pile of petrified wood. Looks like heavy iron mineralization. Black, red, orange, yellow and near white for colors.

 

 

Banding in the wood. In the white area, it sure looks like insect bore holes like I used to see when cutting firewood. Not that it is, it just looks like it.

 

This piece seemed to look it had bark to me. Or maybe it is where two branches split so the wood grain was heavily intermixed and confused.

 

 

Again, I come up stumped with finding reference to a fossil type in our local formations. This time no reference to petrified wood just things like ferns, cordaites, etc for plant life.

 

(1) Are folks finding petrified wood elsewhere in the lower Pennsylvanian?

(2) Has anyone seen insect bore holes in their wood specimens? 

(3) Please advise your thoughts on bark versus complex wood graining?

 

I can provide higher resolution and zoom in if need be.

 

Thank you, Kato

 

 

 

 

 

[ynot]

Some good close up pictures of the different areas of this "wood" will help.

With the pictures shown, I am not convinced this is petrified wood.

[Kato]

9 minutes ago, ynot said:

Some good close up pictures of the different areas of this "wood" will help.

With the pictures shown, I am not convinced this is petrified wood.

ynot, would you offer some ideas of what you'd like close ups of?

 

I have this in situ picture. The middle piece above fits into and matches the front specimen here. I also found the other piece that makes it into a tree-like, trunk shape, but I did not take a picture of them assembled at the location.

 

 

Also, the other rocks in the area are all limestone and sandstone. Above and below this location for at least 1/2 mile. 

[ynot]

35 minutes ago, Kato said:

(1) Are folks finding petrified wood elsewhere in the lower Pennsylvanian?

(2) Has anyone seen insect bore holes in their wood specimens? 

(3) Please advise your thoughts on bark versus complex wood graining?

1 Yes, I have seen Pennsylvanian petrified wood.

2 Yes, insect damage in petrified wood is not uncommon.

3 Much of the petrified wood from the Chinle formation has a "sponge like" exterior rind that is neither bark or wood but has a grain like structure.

 

3 minutes ago, Kato said:

would you offer some ideas of what you'd like close ups of?

The area You think is bark, the area that shows wood grain and the area where the 2 types meet.

[Kato]

An end view

 

[Kato]

The potential insect bore holes of inner side of big piece

[Kato]

Exterior of bigger piece

[Kato]

Angled view of exterior of small piece

[Kato]

Juncture of small piece exterior and interior meeting

[Kato]

One area of exterior on small piece

[Kato]

Another area on small piece exterior

[Kato]

3rd area on exterior of small piece

 

[KimTexan]

2 minutes ago, Kato said:

Another area on small piece exterior

Kind of looks like a heavily mineralized and weathered piece of something like a lepodendron. Normally the surface would be more smooth and you could see the detail that would help determine the species, but I think the weathering has made that next to impossible unless certain species have been previously identified in that area or formation. It looks like wood to me, but I’m no pro.

[Kato]

One more of the inside of the bigger piece

[Kato]

Closer to potential insect holes in big piece

 

[KimTexan]

I happened across this gallery on here. It may give insight or the guy may have thoughts on your piece. He’s from another country though.

 

 

[Kato]

Hi, with reference to the smaller piece. I don't really know if it has an interior or exterior side to it. It could well be from the interior of a larger piece, the jagged side reminds me of what happens when you take a wood splitter to a tree crotch.

 

The only igneous rocks in the area are green porphory. Only metamorphic rocks are sandstones and limestones that come into contact with the porphyry.

 

oth, it could be a heavily weathered piece of lepidodendron as KimTexan has mentioned...

[Innocentx]

The piece with 'borings' looks nice and woody. It may have lost it's bark and so diagnostics for ID are gone.

Very nice finds!

[abyssunder]

59 minutes ago, Kato said:

Closer to potential insect holes in big piece

Do you have a comparative scale for the pictures?

[Kato]

14 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

Do you have a comparative scale for the pictures?

Small specimen = 6" wide, 9" tall, 2.5" thick

Large specimen = 6.5" wide, 8.5" tall, 5" thick

[Kato]

17 minutes ago, Innocentx said:

The piece with 'borings' looks nice and woody. It may have lost it's bark and so diagnostics for ID are gone.

Very nice finds!

Hi, this was on the opposite of the borings or what I have called the outside due to curved nature of the specimen.

 

[ynot]

The prices shown do resemble the "wood" from the chinle formation (petrified forest Arizona).

The "outside" is not the natural surface of the logs, but rather is an area of dodgy preservation. Maybe from decomposition of the wood before internment.

It does look like some insect damage in the one picture.

[Kato]

Thank you all for help. Due to this being lower-to-mid Mississippian, I will leave it generally classified as to Lycopod With a thought to it being Lepidodendron permineralized.

 

In this link are comments as to the lower exterior part of the Lepidodendron 'rough, corrugated or ropey texture'.

 

https://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/LepidoTrunk.html

 

 

The photo in the link seems mostly similar to that of the larger piece

 

 

 

I plan to return and examine more pieces at the site. 

[Kato]

The 2nd largest piece at the site. 1st one was semi-buried and I didn't do a close-up. This specimen is pushing past 16" in diameter and has matching pieces to complete it.

 

Never going to fit into my pack and far too heavy to carry for miles.

 

 

 

[Kato]

I strolled back to the site and found part of the contact zone for the permineralized material

 

24" long x 16" wide