jpbowden Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 It appears to be a piece of cherty limestone that has had a few decades of weathering on it. The 4th pic appears to have bedding structures(lams). As others have said, it doesn't look "organic", but I'm not familiar with Texas stuff. Most of it that is not been washed down stream is like this here, and on top of that to feed their cattle the ranchers do a lot of root plowing. This is done with large dozers and goes down a foot or more most of the would is ripped to pieces. Now the fossil wood that's found deep in the caliche is much harder and older. This piece looks just like the stuff just above that, if you do your research on Live Oak County Texas, you will find that Cycads and all of there "parts", fern trees, and palm trees grew here and left there fossils here, and one small branching palm fossil too. I have to go Conroe this weekend to take care of so business, and Stacey said that we could meet up and I could have a closer look at it. My wife and I have a place we stop at on the way out and get coffee that would be a good place. '' I'm a Limestone Cowboy'', "King of the Oysters", no thanks, just real "Grumpy from lack of a Beer" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Oh yes forgot, you can find coconut palms here too, with the coconuts. Though rare they can be found, I have always wanted to cut it open but never did, they are very heavy and solid, more than likely agate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest solius symbiosus Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 '' I'm a Limestone Cowboy'', If you are the "Limestone Cowboy", then surely, I am the "half-stoned" cowboy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 If you are the "Limestone Cowboy", then surely, I am the "half-stoned" cowboy. I have never used drugs and never will, in my heart and soul still 100% Marine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 For those that don't know...... I need to go into some detail with the way fossils and caliche are formed here, first caliche forms when minerals (calcium carbonate usually) are leached from the upper layer of the soil and accumulated into the lower layer maybe 3 to 10 feet under the surface. This is a timely (slow) process and organic matter under it will rot pretty much. Scenario: Tree falls down, gets covered with soil. Tree rots and whats left of it falls into void, caliche process starts to work, turns tree into a total mess and becomes hard, caliche process never stops, soil, clay, rock, become a 200' deep layer of solid caliche now chalk and has not been laid down in layer by the ocean or any river. Just the slow march of time. Tree lays on ground and turns into tooth picks or fractures. It no longer looks like tree at all, but if you look close you will see it. Now, mixed in with this here are fossil woods that have become agate, and are some of the best in the would. That is why people pay to come on these ranches to hunt them, oh, did I mention the fossil bones, hello people they are looking for primate here now and finding them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron E. Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Now, mixed in with this here are fossil woods that have become agate, and are some of the best in the would. That is why people pay to come on these ranches to hunt them, oh, did I mention the fossil bones, hello people they are looking for primate here now and finding them! (sigh) and here I sit, stuck in the Mississippian... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 (sigh) and here I sit, stuck in the Mississippian... Really Ron, most of the agate and wood I get I just give away, I just left 500 pounds of the stuff behind that on the outside looked bad, but on the inside it was really top grade agate, some was full rounds and was fern, palm, and a couple of good pieces of cycad. No one wanted to get it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Well drop off all of your excess palm, coconuts, ferns and agates in my front yard on your way to Conroe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 That stuff was left behind, put it all under the house, had one piece of palm that was bright red and a full round a little over a foot tall and 11" in diameter. But this fall I will get a bunch more and you can come on down here and get it. Bring Bob and we'll go do some fishing too. Do you have access to a large rock saw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 That stuff was left behind, put it all under the house, had one piece of palm that was bright red and a full round a little over a foot tall and 11" in diameter. But this fall I will get a bunch more and you can come on down here and get it. Bring Bob and we'll go do some fishing too. Do you have access to a large rock saw? Sounds good (he says, drooling over the huge piece of palm Pat left behind ). I do have access to a large rock saw at HGMS. How large are you talking about? I know a guy..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 That would be a most excellent screen name... Anybody is quite welcome to use it.... ..... Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Sounds good (he says, drooling over the huge piece of palm Pat left behind ). I do have access to a large rock saw at HGMS. How large are you talking about? I know a guy..... I have always left the big stuff behind, well let's face ot, how much weigh can a Chevy Venture carry? Now I have a Nice big new Ford Truck and BOYS the game is on! There are some very large fern and palm logs on those ranches and me and Ford are going for it. The green and blue agate ain't bad either. While I'm there I'll get a hog and some blue quail and well have a nice Bar B Q to boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest solius symbiosus Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I have never used drugs and never will, in my heart and soul still 100% Marine! I guess it was a lame attempt at a play on words. I don't either, and haven't since kids came along(nearly 20 years)... well, except for alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, but I have stones laying about everywhere. My kitchen table has become a second work bench, of sorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I guess it was a lame attempt at a play on words. I don't either, and haven't since kids came along(nearly 20 years)... well, except for alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, but I have stones laying about everywhere. My kitchen table has become a second work bench, of sorts. Hey, life is way too short, just enjoy it I do, or try to. Man the things I've seen you would not, well now I just go with the flow.... I don't have flash backs, just instant replays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Things have come up and I will not be able to make it to Conroe this weekend, sorry. Be that as it may after looking over the photos on two computers, it looks like it is a Zamia sp. microsporophylls. Again, I have to go south not north this weekend. and I hope this will help. Cycads are universally dioecious. Male plants produce pollen by leaf homologues called microsporophylls, and female plants produce ovules by leaf homologues known as megasporophylls. In all cycads, the microsporophylls are arranged spirally about a cone axis; in all cycads but Cycas, megasporophylls are similarly arranged. Megasporophylls of Cycas do not form a true cone but are arranged in two to three whorls at the stem apex. Later the stem resumes vegetative growth, and the megasporophylls then are interposed between whorls of foliar leaves and cataphylls; the usual arrangement is two to three whorls of leaves, then several whorls of cataphylls, followed by megasporophylls, but variations in this sequence are not unusual. The megasporophyll of the Asian Cycas revoluta is considered to most typify the ancestral seed-fern condition. Each megasporophyll consists of a stalk, a fertile portion bearing two to six ovules, and an expanded terminal blade having fringelike “pinnae.” An evolutionary series of plant forms probably led toward the biovulate, peltate megasporophylls of such forms as Encephalartos, Ceratozamia, Microcycas, and Zamia. Microsporophylls similarly vary among cycads; those of Cycas are the more leaflike, those of Zamia less so. Microsporangia, which are found on the abaxial surface of microsporophylls, are usually numerous—several hundred in Cycas, several dozen in Zamia—and arranged in small clusters of two to five. They are the equivalent of sori of ferns and of pteridosperms. The cycad microsporangium resembles a clamshell, being somewhat flattened with an elongate suture. Pat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacey Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 So are you saying that what I have may very well be some sort of cycad?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreekCrawler Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 While I'm there I'll get a hog and some blue quail and well have a nice Bar B Q to boot. Sounds like a 5 star dinner to me Are you going to bring the .270 or am I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Sounds like a 5 star dinner to me Are you going to bring the .270 or am I Now now, I can't say the the hogs have already been taken, and it would be a low soul that gets quail with a trap. Those folks down there would never do such a thing. Glad I cleared that up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 So are you saying that what I have may very well be some sort of cycad?? Well, it's more like a container for it's seed, but the good news is, there is a lot of fossil cycad here in Texas. Thank the ranches for this, if it was not for them most would be gone. There are some ranches here that let you hunt for a fee, some advertise so do not. Also not everything that looks like cycad is cycad. Check this out..... Faux Cycad If you move south of here you hit the true Cycads and some have been found here too, the ones here still grow down in Mexico today. Also there are a lot of the fern tree families represented here and further on down into Mexico. The ferns are by far the most interesting. A lot of ferns have been taken to be palm. Here is a poor picture of seeds, what I think you have is just a small part of one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacey Posted July 18, 2009 Author Share Posted July 18, 2009 Well, it's more like a container for it's seed, but the good news is, there is a lot of fossil cycad here in Texas. Thank the ranches for this, if it was not for them most would be gone. There are some ranches here that let you hunt for a fee, some advertise so do not. Also not everything that looks like cycad is cycad.Check this out..... Faux Cycad If you move south of here you hit the true Cycads and some have been found here too, the ones here still grow down in Mexico today. Also there are a lot of the fern tree families represented here and further on down into Mexico. The ferns are by far the most interesting. A lot of ferns have been taken to be palm. Here is a poor picture of seeds, what I think you have is just a small part of one. The fern thing seems to make more sense, but doesn't quite fit the way the round seed things are placed on this, unless more than one of the structures grow on a stem or trunk. It seems like there are separate parts placed around a main stem, possibly overlapping some. I'd like to point out again, though, that I really don't know where this piece is from...the people traveled all over the US, so this could be from anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest solius symbiosus Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Hey, life is way too short, just enjoy it I do, or try to. Man the things I've seen you would not, well now I just go with the flow.... I don't have flash backs, just instant replays. I hear what you are saying. My dad fought in 3 wars(joined in '44, discharged in '66), and he very rarely talked of his experiences, but a few times he did. He related one fight in Korea back when I was a kid, and that story has stuck with me my entire life. Most people have no ideal, and are incapable of comprehending... The only time that I ever saw him cry was one time when a bugler played Taps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 The only time that I ever saw him cry was one time when a bugler played Taps. Me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 The fern thing seems to make more sense, but doesn't quite fit the way the round seed things are placed on this, unless more than one of the structures grow on a stem or trunk. It seems like there are separate parts placed around a main stem, possibly overlapping some. I'd like to point out again, though, that I really don't know where this piece is from...the people traveled all over the US, so this could be from anywhere. The picture is from a living one and it can have quite a few at any given time growing off of it. You just have a sliver of one of these that's been flattened. Zamia comes from a large family. Check out some books on cycads, I have fern thunks with seeds on them but they are not like this at all. Also the one in the picture has been cut open to show the insides, and how the seeds form. Yours is in this style, sad but they are not that strong and do not fossil well, they rod fairly quick and leave very little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpbowden Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 I'd like to point out again, though, that I really don't know where this piece is from...the people traveled all over the US, so this could be from anywhere. Right now it does not matter where it came from, what age, what type of rock. We are looking for a fingerprint in the air, that's what this is all about. Clues, where does this fit, look at it's structure plant or animal, or nothing. As you answer each question there will be more, and more and more, now you are are building a data base on this fossil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacey Posted July 18, 2009 Author Share Posted July 18, 2009 Neat...I found these. It makes much more sense now... These are what I'm seeing imbedded all over the piece. Fern seed pods Fossil Fern Seeds A most cool website: Seed evolution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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