piece of petrified wood

[huntress104]

This is the best piece of petrified wood I have ever found. The bark on it is very well preserved and thick. Can some possibly identify it for me? I found it in the bottom of a creek under water. It was buried with just a small part of the edge sticking up. I looks to me like it could be very old because I have never seen a tree with that kind of bark on it anywhere.

[Produce Guy]

It looks like an Ocatillo/ bush that grows in the Big Bend area of Texas.

[Harry Pristis]

This is the best piece of petrified wood I have ever found. The bark on it is very well preserved and thick. Can some possibly identify it for me? I found it in the bottom of a creek under water. It was buried with just a small part of the edge sticking up. I looks to me like it could be very old because I have never seen a tree with that kind of bark on it anywhere.

I think it's more likely that you have a bryozoan zoarium, perhaps in the Suborder RHABDOMESINA. That would be Paleozoic in age.

Scrub it with an old toothbrush. Let it dry thoroughly. Then, take another good close-up of the least-worn side, and post it here.

[huntress104]

This is the best piece of petrified wood I have ever found. The bark on it is very well preserved and thick. Can some possibly identify it for me? I found it in the bottom of a creek under water. It was buried with just a small part of the edge sticking up. I looks to me like it could be very old because I have never seen a tree with that kind of bark on it anywhere.

I think it's more likely that you have a bryozoan zoarium, perhaps in the Suborder RHABDOMESINA. That would be Paleozoic in age.

Scrub it with an old toothbrush. Let it dry thoroughly. Then, take another good close-up of the least-worn side, and post it here.

Thanks Harry. Here are the close-up pictures you asked for. I scrubbed it good and let it dry. the bark is about 1/2 inch thick.

[Harry Pristis]

This is the best piece of petrified wood I have ever found. The bark on it is very well preserved and thick. Can some possibly identify it for me? I found it in the bottom of a creek under water. It was buried with just a small part of the edge sticking up. I looks to me like it could be very old because I have never seen a tree with that kind of bark on it anywhere.

I think it's more likely that you have a bryozoan zoarium, perhaps in the Suborder RHABDOMESINA. That would be Paleozoic in age.

Scrub it with an old toothbrush. Let it dry thoroughly. Then, take another good close-up of the least-worn side, and post it here.

Thanks Harry. Here are the close-up pictures you asked for. I scrubbed it good and let it dry. the bark is about 1/2 inch thick.

Hmmm . . . I don't see the details for which I was looking.

Rhabdomesina is a big suborder. Here's a PDF of a paper with some illustrations to give you an idea of the general form. I don't propose that this is anything other than encouragement for your further research.

http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/...ries.004op.pdf

You can also approach this challenge by figuring out the age of the sediments in your creek, then researching what taxa have already been described for that age or formation.

Let us know what you find out.

[gord]

Didn't fossis have something posted a while ago that looked like this?