Auspex Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 This is a pretty nice piece of petrified wood, from the Oligocene of Egypt. It is a 19" long full-round (4" max. dia.) with wonderful bark texture. It is extraordinary in that it preserves feeding damage from what I believe was a woodpecker-like bird. I say "woodpecker-like" because the oldest known woodpecker is Miocene, but the Order is known from a couple feathers in Oligocene amber from the Dominican Republic (one of which I have ). Running up one side (on either side of a crack in the wood) is a staggered series of 14+ elongated holes (avg. size 1/2" long X 3/16" wide X 1/8" deep), some of them paired. I did the best I could to capture the "pecked-out" nature of these holes and learned that I now have one more reason to buy a digital microscope. In the hand, they are exactly like the feeding holes made by woodpeckers today when they excavate beetle larva from under the bark. I want to add that, in all of my research, this fossil is unique. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texaswoodie Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Wow, what a cool piece of wood! I never thought to look for woodpecker holes. Curt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traviscounty Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 That is really unique! Can you post a pick of the feather in amber? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Is it possible the marks could be from gastropods once the wood was submerged? Scraping off algae which may have grown on the waterlogged wood. -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 Is it possible the marks could be from gastropods once the wood was submerged? Scraping off algae which may have grown on the waterlogged wood. These holes are elongate, pecked out (and narrowing to the bottom), and all are aligned parallel in the direction of the trunk. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Nice piece of wood. I've seen and collected Miocene and Eocene wood bored by teredo worms and insects. Not seen damage like that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 ...Not seen damage like that before. I've seen a lot of damage just like it, every time I go nosing around in the woods. I know that it is impossible to be 100% certain about an ichno fossil's origin, and I welcome all thoughts on this one. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 I was just messing around with holding a loupe in front of the camers lens, and took these ultra-macros of some of the holes (side lighting helps to show the depth). "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I was just messing around with holding a loupe in front of the camers lens, and took these ultra-macros of some of the holes (side lighting helps to show the depth). So, you believe that you have a piece of "-wood" there. Here is the remnant of a mature white oak tree in my yard. A fifteen-foot trunk is still standing because I have a security light mounted on it. The pileated woodpeckers love it and are responsible for most of this -wood. There are plenty of flickers around also, but they don't seem to do the bark penetration like the big birds. You can see the sort of damage they do to dead wood. I've turned one image on its side to get it all on-screen. http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 That is really unique! Can you post a pick of the feather in amber? Roxie Laybourne was the "feather gal" at the Smithsonian; via a microscope, she could ID the smallest feather fragment scraped from the inside of a jet engine (a task she was continouosly called upon to perform). She authored a paper on the identification of a Picidae feather-in-amber from the Palo Alto Mine in the Dominican Republic. (Link to PDF: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v106n01/p0018-p0025.pdf ). My feather is the third from that location so identified. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 I was just messing around with holding a loupe in front of the camers lens, and took these ultra-macros of some of the holes (side lighting helps to show the depth). Yep, look just like the holes in the side of my dryvet covered house that Flickers love to peck at. In the long run though, they always seem to get lead poisoning..... Brent Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 Yep, look just like the holes in the side of my dryvet covered house that Flickers love to peck at. Even NASA had a little problem with a Flicker.... Just be glad you don't live in Acorn Woodpecker country; you should see their "graineries"! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micropterus101 Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Could it also be were giant killer wasp like thingy was scraping wood for a giant killer wasp thingy nest to make more giant killer wasp thingy's? fossil crabs website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 Good thought, but hornets and paper wasps "chew" the pulp into paper; these holes show signs of the wood fibers having been forced inward and broken, as in pecked. If I just had a good digital microscope, I could show you what I mean. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jax Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 It is extraordinary in that it preserves feeding damage Man! I was hoping to see beaver chew marks Pretty cool piece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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