Petrified wood from California?

[olorotitan]

I was wondering if anyone could confirm that these two stones are indeed petrified wood.  I picked them up while camping west of the Salton Sea in southern california.  There's 2 pieces for consideration: both were found in the same general area, a year apart.  They feel like solid rock but show pores and prints that make me think it's petrified wood.  If it is, would anyone want to guess family or age?  Thanks in advance!

 

 

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[olorotitan]

Second piece below.  The "bark" print is really interesting on this one.

 

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[Rockwood]

In decreasing order of certainty. You should wait for confirmation.

Wood

The small voids resin ducts indicating a conifer.

The bark actually latent growth buds in the wood grain.

[Wrangellian]

They look woody to me. The age is hard to say unless one consults a geologic map. Without having one handy, I'd say probably not very old in geologic terms (I bet Pliocene or Miocene).

[siteseer]

9 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

They look woody to me. The age is hard to say unless one consults a geologic map. Without having one handy, I'd say probably not very old in geologic terms (I bet Pliocene or Miocene).

 

Yes, Pliocene petrified wood is known from that area.  The book, Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert, edited by George T. Jefferson and Lowell Lindsay (Sunbelt Publications, 2006) discusses various plant remains in Chapter 4, "Ancestral Woodlands of the Colorado River Delta Plain."

[olorotitan]

On 3/12/2019 at 2:18 PM, siteseer said:

 

Yes, Pliocene petrified wood is known from that area.  The book, Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert, edited by George T. Jefferson and Lowell Lindsay (Sunbelt Publications, 2006) discusses various plant remains in Chapter 4, "Ancestral Woodlands of the Colorado River Delta Plain."

 

Thank you for confirming ID and age.  And that's a very nice reference, thanks for leading me to it. 

[siteseer]

On 3/14/2019 at 9:29 AM, olorotitan said:

 

Thank you for confirming ID and age.  And that's a very nice reference, thanks for leading me to it. 

 

Yes, it's a great rather little-known book covering a particular area of North America but would be interesting to many fossil collectors especially mammal collectors.