Fossil ID please

[jamesp]

Found this in a small creek in Florida.

It seems silicified as it is very hard.
Found with silicified oysters and coral, silicified mangrove root casts, silicified algae. And a few apatized mammal bones.

Looks like a wood, but wood w/grain is rare there.

[Fossilman]

If its not petwood James,it might be a part of a mammoth tooth,that petrified!

[rockpickerforever]

James, I have a piece (from SoCal desert) that looks a lot like that. I think mine is palm. I did a cursory shaping and polishing on the flat lap. It is pretty porous, and has the same texture as yours. I'll get a pic and put it up for you to see.

[jamesp]

Thank y'all. It was the only one in Florida. I searched the whole state.

We just do not have fossilized alien bog.(aliens are scared of gators thank goodness).

Looking forward to your photo Jean.

[jamesp]

I see why you may say palm. It looks like it is sliced down the tubes. It is in a tumbler some where.
I need to look at the left edge or the right edge to see if there are rings.

I only spent a little time in that creek and found a wide variety of fossils and artifacts.
A duty to go back.

[rockpickerforever]

Your post just reminded me I need to take a pic. Will do that before it gets dark.

[jamesp]

[rockpickerforever]

I didn't forget, had to go walk Lucy first.  Sorry the colors are a little off, someone was being impatient

Front

Back (I was just playing with this, wasn't going to do anything with it.0

Side (obviously)

Other side

Front again

This is palm (pretty sure).  Does yours look like this?

[jamesp]

Exactly. That is the same structure. The thing that tricked me was the way it's front and back had split
right down the 'tubes' Jean. The wavy pattern is the wiggly movement of the tubes. Great comparison.
I was finding so many mangrove root casts with a little structure preserved that it is likely that a palm
could have silicified.
The little creek i was doodling in was flowing on a high plateau above the Suwanee River about 200
feet above sea level. Say 1/2 mile from the river. I take my boat 2 hours up stream to get to the section
of the river below these high plateaus. The river cut a gorge and the reef rolled into the river.
River level 30 above sea level. Coral formation 160-200 feet above sea level. The mangrove grows in
shallow water. Oysters too. And i found a bunch of oysters. So i was sure that i was in the ancient shallows
at 200 elevation.
Making logic that a palm and a shore was close by. Making that creek a special spot to hunt.A fresh water
spring was flowing out of the ground and spilling into the creek. Pottery and chipped coral was common.
Ground springs have fresh water and were party holes for the ancients, every time.
The coral was about completely hounded out. That's why i go the long trip up the remote river. The few
corals i found were very nice. I was told about this creek by some artifact hunters from Jacksonville i met
the day before on the Withlacoochee river up in Georgia. They said it had fine coral. But it was about gone.
Small upland creek

Sandy bottom with many fossils. Ground spring back left.

Treasures fanned out of sand. Limestone cobbles are white and behind darker fossil pile.

Had gator tail for lunch-just kidding

[rockpickerforever]

Looks like he's having pork for lunch... I always love your location photos, James. So different than the scenery out here.

Stupid question - Saw Palmetto is a fan palm, right? So fossilized palmetto would have the same structure as any other palm?  I'd be willing to bet that this existed in FL in the past.

Here's a link to a site about palm wood.  Some good info.

[jamesp]

Feb 2, 2014 10:17:12 GMT -5 Fossilman said:

If its not petwood James,it might be a part of a mammoth tooth,that petrified!

I have seen a lot of mammoth tooth Micheal. i am pretty certain it is not that. I wish..that it was.
I was waiting to see what Jean said. And she has got us all beat. Alien brains at work. Mere mortals no match.

[jamesp]

Feb 3, 2014 12:07:18 GMT -5 rockpickerforever said:

Looks like he's having pork for lunch... I always love your location photos, James. So different than the scenery out here.

Stupid question - Saw Palmetto is a fan palm, right? So fossilized palmetto would have the same structure as any other palm?  I'd be willing to bet that this existed in FL in the past.

Here's a link to a site about palm wood.  Some good info.

A lot of good info on that link. Never noticed the half moon shape. Will look at my various palm bowls to see if that is the way they are.

Those saw palmettos are vast. Many, many miles of those in the understory. The stalks are responsible for their name,'saw palmettos'.
More famous for having those orange wasp's nests hanging from them to start stinging you only to force you move fast and get sawed up.
All of south Georgia and a good bit of Florida is covered in them. I do not know about ancient times. They are stoloniferous and leave
long trunks laying on the ground. Large mowers are easily broken when the blade hits the horizontal trunk growing along the ground.
And the love to be burnt. Their husk is damp and super tough. They laugh at fires. Like it fertilizes them.
They make a delicious palm heart. Easy to harvest and quite sweet. A great survival food.
And a gourmet level food when the chef gets ahold of it.
If there is a drought in the Ocala National Forest all fences and trash cans get destroyed. so many bear come for food. The palmettos have
berries that are majority diet for black bears. No rain-no berries. Collectors pick them at $25/100 pounds for use in cancer treatment

[rockpickerforever]

I've got a couple of big molars, they are from Bison occidentalis. One from up near the US/Canada border, in a river. The other, that looks just like it, was a Quartzsite purchase years ago.

Found this pic online.  Mine look like the one on the lower left - mostly. 

Is this pic good enough, or do I have to take some photos of my own?

I don't think teeth look like the palm, no resemblance whatsoever.

[Sabre52]

Your example looks like a wood variety we find down at George West too. I used to think it was palm as in some ways it resembles palm fiber but when cut lengthwise it shows stringers with those little double pointed eye shaped ovals scattered randomly along their length. I'm now thinking not palm and maybe not even monocot but admittedly, I'm clueless as to just what type of wood it is......Mel

[jamesp]

Feb 3, 2014 21:09:47 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Your example looks like a wood variety we find down at George West too. I used to think it was palm as in some ways it resembles palm fiber but when cut lengthwise it shows stringers with those little double pointed eye shaped ovals scattered randomly along their length. I'm now thinking not palm and maybe not even monocot but admittedly, I'm clueless as to just what type of wood it is......Mel

George West has a fair amount of stuff like fern and grapevine i believe. May be a wide variety of petrifications. Seems that it could be confusing.
As far as my sample,I will get a great side view when tumbled. Maybe that will help.

[Sabre52]

Yeah, I went out and looked at one of my examples and some palm cut lengthwise and the eye shapes in my unnamed wood are smaller than what you have James but my palm has longer stringers than yours. I do think palm is closer to what you have. Our South Texas wood is real confusing. I've yet to find any source for good IDs and it's very frustrating. Wish I lived closer to Ginko National Park up in Washington state. They have an incredible collection of ID'd wood up there....Mel

[jamesp]

Feb 3, 2014 22:31:40 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Yeah, I went out and looked at one of my examples and some palm cut lengthwise and the eye shapes in my unnamed wood are smaller than what you have James but my palm has longer stringers than yours. I do think palm is closer to what you have. Our South Texas wood is real confusing. I've yet to find any source for good IDs and it's very frustrating. Wish I lived closer to Ginko National Park up in Washington state. They have an incredible collection of ID'd wood up there....Mel

I copied this from Wikipedia Mel.

"The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas was home to a large palm tree forest when Spaniards first arrived, though today very little of it remains."

That surprised me after collecting around George West and Zapata area. Not much of that area looks like a palm forest.

Around Zapata wood was common. Real pretty stuff but like you said i have seen very little of it ID'ed.

[tandl]

Does look like psaronius fern root or palm root cut longitudinally. could be something else entirely though