Wood or weird looking stone?

[WaProspecting]

I really don't know if this is petrified wood, fossil or just a stone but just found this piece. The colors are red, black and light blue with the brown running around the sides. It weighs about 4lbs maybe more and in person you can see the little fibers in between the noticeable leaf stems. There is also a hole in the top right of this piece that looks like some type of water species or worm but just got into this hobby. If you could let me know what I'm looking at I would appreciate it. If you turn it over the piece is completely black with some red in it. Cool piece for my first find ever and thought I would share it.

 

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[Kray Gelder]

Fossilized leaves. You didn't mention where you found this specimen, but if it was out in the wild, there are more fossils to find there. Back in the early 80's, I dug in a fossil bed near Clarkia, Idaho. It was a layer of fossils in a cut bank at the north end of a small dirt race track. Apparently, the bed was the remains of a lake bottom, where the leaves settled, and were quickly covered by silt runoff, preventing decay. The estimated age of the fossils is 15 mil. years. If you do a search of Clarkia fossil beds in Idaho, you will see similar stuff to yours. The leaves were so well preserved, that when you split the layers of mudstone ( still soft and wet ) the intact leaves were still there, but would curl up and fall apart right before your eyes. We found some preserved fish skeletons, also. If you find the bed, you can split the layers with a large knife, or hatchet, and expose nice intact fossils. A nice find can be preserved if you immediately wrap the block of mudstone in newspaper, and let it slowly dry for weeks. Nice find, good luck.

 

[WaProspecting]

Thanks Kray... I found this in Washington state on a river bank. I see these all over but usually they don't have the color or the hardness to them. Most of the time its dull black and very brittle (looks like volcanic material). I hit this one with a hammer a few times and it didn't break which is why I brought it home. I was trying to get into a spot I found purple gems at two years ago so I could grab a sample but couldn't get down there without a buddy of mine (safety concerns). Deposit shows Al2O3 and was thinking the gems I found could be corundum. Trying to find friends in this hobby is extremely hard when your 28 and everyone else is 50 or retired lol