Found that cycady lookin rock in the horse pasture

[Sabre52]

Well, after riding the pasture like ten times and walking it at least that many, I finally found that dang rock in the 300 acre haystack. This is the stuff that resembles cycad but in the more normal earth tones. Looks to have the original "skin" on one side that shows the diamond patterns and has an eroded crust on the other side that was exposed to the elements. About 7 by 5 by 2" thick and I'm still clueless as to what this stuff is, if it's not se kind of fossil. As I mentioned before, this was used as a core for flaking spalls by the Amerinds, as it was sitting by an Indian Mound site....Mel

Exposed side:



Buried side that shows barky patterns better:

[snowmom]

a lot like the ones here, that flesh when cut leaves a pretty pattern (miander and jugglerguy cut theirs)
very cool fossil! Isn't it cool that others before us probably wondered at it too, maybe taking little chunks for magic tools or amulets?

[gingerkid]

Glad you found it again, Mel!

[Fossilman]

Kind of like a petrified fossil,rock or mineral...Crazy cool though...I couldn't find anything like it in my fossil books yet..

[Sabre52]

This example is highly agatized and the Amerinds around here did not miss much highly agatized stuff when flaking off spalls for their tools. The pasture around this find is strewn with flint/chert waste flakes, spalls and cores. Since most our topsoil is long gone, all the rock waste from human exploitation of the resource is pretty close to the surface but one still seldom finds an example of this weird stuff that has been flaked because most are not this solidly replaced with silica. I would kill to find a point flaked from it.....Mel

[bsky4463]

Pretty darn cool looking Mel. Cheers

[snowmom]

"I would Kill to find a point flaked from it"... bet they were prized possessions. Sounds like good grounds for hunting and good odds of finding one right there. best wishes, hope you find one in perfect condition.

[Sabre52]

Alas, small chance of finding perfect points around here these days. Met an old timer who hunted artifacts here on the ranch back in the 1970's ( has a spectacular collection). He told me that back then, you could pick up a pocket full of prefect points in a one hour hunt. Mostly only brokes left now as in Texas the artifact craze is very popular, and I'm lucky to find a good point once a year.....Mel

[snowmom]

did you check that collection for points that look like they were made out of the stuff of your fossil? ; )
My grandpa used to pick up stone age and woodland points near the Bigfoot Prairie in Wisconsin when he was a kid following a horse drawn plow. I inherited them from him. I have the passion to hunt stuff but any place I have ever lived has had a dearth of them (and I am probably a really bad hunter) I have only found a scraper, a hammerstone and some sort of stone that seems to have been used to strip bark off sticks (baskets, arrows?) and one broken point in all these years. : )