Rsmull Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Found this piece of pet. wood in a sand pit next to the Tar River. Any ideas on what kind of wood this is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rsmull Posted October 1, 2009 Author Share Posted October 1, 2009 More views Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyguy784 Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Looks a bit like some Palm wood I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I don't think it is palm, although I can see why you might think so. It looks to me like it has a lot of pocket rot, which can fool you when you have palm on your mind. Lord knows I've picked up enough "faux palm". It may be too decomposed before becoming petrified to ID, but a picture of the end(s) could aid an ID. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texaswoodie Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I agree, rotten wood. The only way to be sure what species it is would be to cut slices across the grain and look at the cell structure. It takes a scientist more or less to positively identify it. I've read how to do it, but it's all over my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 i agree that most wood cannot be identified unless its cross-grain cellular structure has been preserved. there's a guy in my area who can examine the cell structure with a binocular microscope and frequently make at least a fairly generic id as to the type of wood. some wood is pretty distinctive, but a lot of what i've collected ended up being considered "tropical hardwood". quite a bit of what i've found was silicified to the point where no cellular structure remained. at any rate, if you google "identifying fossil wood" (inside the quotation marks as shown), then you'll get some hits on the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 I agree, rotten wood. The only way to be sure what species it is would be to cut slices across the grain and look at the cell structure. It takes a scientist more or less to positively identify it. I've read how to do it, but it's all over my head. I have seen that done. I know a guy working on a couple of papers. He has thin sectioned a lot of pet wood and it is amazing how you can see the cellular structures preserved in some of it. Some Texas wood can be readily identified with the naked eye or with 5x-10x magnification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Menser Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 Not an expert on fossil wood here, but being from S. Florida I have cut my share of Palms down. Looks like rotten Palm to me. Be true to the reality you create. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 to me, on the larger end of the piece, on both sides, it looks like a round limb crossed against the grain. the piece has all the appearance of somewhat deteriorated wood, but i feel that it is definitely not palm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 I don't think it is palm wood either, in both the first and second picture of the first post, there appears to be both rays and annual rings. Annual rings are not found in palm wood, as it is a monocot with scattered vascular bundles. Basically palm is a tree version of an iris or corn. Cut a cross section and polish, I think it is well enough preserved to tell between monocot and dicot. Brent Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texaswoodie Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 I have seen that done. I know a guy working on a couple of papers. He has thin sectioned a lot of pet wood and it is amazing how you can see the cellular structures preserved in some of it. Some Texas wood can be readily identified with the naked eye or with 5x-10x magnification. Scott Singleton? That guy is my pet wood hero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rsmull Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share Posted October 2, 2009 Thanks you all. At least I know its wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Scott Singleton? That guy is my pet wood hero. That's him. Mine, too I've learned a lot from him. Also been his worker bee in the field a couple of times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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