My daughter found an interesting bit of what appears to be petrified
wood when we were rockhounding in Arizona. It has a wonderful
pattern of bumps on it, and I wonder if anyone out there can tell me
what it started out as. It is just a sliver of a thing, about an
inch across. Other than the bumps, it looks just like the rest of
the petrified wood we picked up. You can see it at
Noel
In petrified palm the vascular bundles show up on a cross grain
slice as little polka dots. I have not seen a weathered surface of
them before. This may be one. Some of the tree ferns had interesting
patterns on the bark, but I think they are more diamond shaped.
Rose Alene
My friend said it looks like a section of a beehive, which is
entirely possible since bees have been known to create hives in
trees. The coloring and patterning sure do look like petrified wood
though.
Kenton
Noel
It has a wonderful pattern of bumps on it, and I wonder if anyone out there can tell me what it started out as.
There are some trees that when they grow slowly produce bumps which
are twigs on the outer trunk and produce a pattern in the wood,
Birdseye maple is one such wood. But I don’t think that is what this
is, I have seen something very similar to that pattern, but it was a
lizards skin. I would not bet the farm on my being correct on this,
but that is what it brings to mind for me.
Terry
Noel,
Hard to be absolutely certain but that appears to be part of the
outer covering of a cycad, an early fern-like plant. Cool! Nice
find!!!
Wayne
Hi Noel,
That’s really cool whatever it is! My first inclination is to think
it’s some kind of fossilized coral, but from AZ??? I hope one of the
other rockers on this forum will have a better IDea than that.
Hope you can find out for sure and am bettin you’ll make an awesome
piece of jewelry for your daughter to show it off,
Carol
Two thoughts: from the shape, why can’t it be a piece of fossilized
wasp nest that might have been on a tree that was fossilized or more
likely, a piece of fossilized cactus such as prickly pear. The
circles would have held the radiating clusters of thorns.
Judy Shaw, GJG
Looks like petrified palm. the bumps would be the tubes within the
palm that conducted the water up the trunk.
Lee
It looks like part of a petrified pine cone.
Rose
Is there any chance that is a fragment of a bottom fish skin such as
skate adherent to the wood-then petrified together? It sure is a
unique look!
Dr. Mac
The only thing against it being a bee hive is that their “holes” are
hexagon.
Judy Shaw
The only thing against it being a bee hive is that their "holes" are hexagon.
And, of course, bees are generally larger than .5mm… (smiling at
the image of iddy-bitty bees :>) )
Noel
Hard to be absolutely certain but that appears to be part of the outer covering of a cycad, an early fern-like plant.
Well, I looked up “cycad fossil” and there is some similarity, but
the cycad had bumps that are more diamond-shaped. These are quite
circular-- and about a half-millimeter across.
Noel
Well Noel, it looks like you’ve started a mystery!! I grew up in New
Mexico a lot, went rock hounding and fossil hunting since I could
walk, and I’ve never seen anything like that. To me it looks
opalized - my first impression, too. There’s a telltale thing,
though, at least in the photo: Around the edge where it’s flaked,
there are some broken circles. If it were petrified wood, and solid
wood to start, those circles would go down into the rock, just like
the original - that’s how it works. Since they don’t, then they are a
surface thing of some sort. If it were fish eggs, and a layer of silt
layed on top of them, that could opalize, and you could have what you
have, for example. Opalization is similar to petrification, but
petrification gives you a stone version of the original, even inside.
If those were stalks or wood grain they would go all the way through,
or at least inside. It appears to me that it’s a fossil - beyond just
petrified wood fossil.
P.S. Crinoids are a common fossil in the area, and almost look like
that, but they have a serrated edge and a hole in the center - was my
first thought when I saw it, but it’s not.
Really, it’s the outer covering of one of the cycads, also called
gymnosperms. There are many living examples today of this early
plant.
Wayne
The cycads are a very large group of early plants (Gymnosperma) and
their characteristics are quite different from species to species.
My money is on cycad.
Wayne
I have seen something very similar to that pattern, but it was a lizards skin. I would not bet the farm on my being correct on this, but that is what it brings to mind for me.
maybe its a fossilized impression of dinosaur skin, how cool would
that be…
P@
I live in Oregon, but I’ve got a chunk in Bouse, Az., and wintered
at least a bit, sometimes a bunch, every year in the desert
southwest for the last 30 years. I could rockhound there for another
30 and not see and learn everything, but the fossil in the pic is
palm wood.
Charlie
maybe its a fossilized impression of dinosaur skin, how cool would that be...
That would indeed be fabulously cool, but I’m betting on plant
material because one side of the little piece shows what appears to
be a continuation of the structure visible on the top.
Noel
Chunk, meaning a chunk of land, sorry—anyway, petrified palm
wood,—maybe I’ll learn how to post and use this machine if I do it
more. Thanks for your patience. —Charlie
Charlie Wyckoff
charlieschaincraft.com