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12/02/2024
More new specimens from old collections on the way! We'll be on a short hiatus for 10 days but available by email. Thanks for your friendship and your patronage. --------------------- Don't forget to check out the new non-profit organization devoted to fossil forests throughout the world - to the people who study them, to the people who collect their treasures, and to news about new discoveries. Click the link! ------ Jim Mills and Beth Myers |
Welcome to Mills Geological quality identified petrified wood and plant fossils from around the globe |
our featured specimen
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Laurel Family (Laurinoxylon sp.)
Yegua Formation; Eocene Madisonville area, Madison County, Texas ** There is spectacular anatomical preservation in this specimen! The Lauraceae Family has 45 genera and over 2800 species - a truly bewildering variety within a single family. To make matters worse for wood anatomists, there are large groups of species in which the wood anatomy is nearly identical despite the fact that the reproductive structures (flowers, seeds) are different enough to divide them into species. As a consequence, wood anatomists have erected the taxon Laurinoxylon as a convenient way to simply lump them together into more workable groups (some workers have proposed four different groups but the defining characteristics are not all seen in the transverse plane). This Eocene Texas specimen shows some of the main characteristics of Laurinoxylon very nicely. They include indistinct growth rings, diffuse porous (evenly spaced vessels), vasicentric parenchyma (that is the white ring or glow on the periphery of each vessel), vessel density in the range of 5 to 20 per square millimeter, and vessels both singular and in multiple radial groups of two and sometimes three. The fossil species Laurinoxylon eocenicum has been described in the literature from Yellowstone National Park but the distance between Wyoming and Texas and the time lapse between Yegua and Lamar River Formations make it highly likely that this specimen would be accorded a different species epitaph. There are some obvious differences between the two species - the Yellowstone specimens have considerably smaller vessels and wider rays while the Texas specimens have considerably larger vessels, and their narrower rays seem to wander around the vessels in wavy rather than straight lines. The Yegua (loosely pronounced “yay-oh-wa”) Formation records a time of periodic sea level fluctuations and it was likely during one of the lower levels of the oceans that this log was trapped in the delta and covered with sediments carrying quantities of volcanic ash. It was this volcanic ash that provided the silica to petrify the wood. During other periods of the Yegua, the log would have floated out into the Gulf of Mexico, waterlogged, and ended up on the continental shelf where it would have slowly rotted away. So, good luck for us petrified wood collectors that the Yegua had a low sea level occasionally! There is much to recommend in this specimen and we congratulate in advance the lucky collector who nabs this one. 6.5” x 4.5” on polished face; 3/4” thick slab $65 |
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Undetermined Root (Incertae sedis)
Tertiary Chimney Creek, Nevada ** This is a wonderful display specimen! It is a main root with numerous root protuberances now seen as bumps and swellings emanating from the main axis. Most of the material recovered at Chimney Creek Reservoir is root, not stem, and this section is no exception. Growth habits of roots generally preclude sending rootlets in the direction of the sky, a phenomenon caused by both gravity and the relative difference between soil moisture above and below the main root axis. We are told by the collector that this specimen came from an area a bit north of the traditional Chimney creek locality at the edge of the reservoir. We love the display quality of the piece with perfect polish on the cut face and outstanding character along the exterior. 1.75" in diameter on the polished face, 6” long section $35 |
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Unidentified wood (Incertae sedis)
Fleming/Oakville Formation Miocene
George West area, Live Oak County, Texas
** A wildly handsome specimen with incredibly sharp contrast of colors creating a scene-stealing pattern. The main problem we see with this slab is that it may diminish the appearance of any other slab from your collection in a display! Of course, you notice that we cannot get a good taxonomic identification on this specimen – and for good reason. The amount of rot and digestion and decomposition is formidable in this specimen. It appears that it has suffered both desiccation due to extreme drying and subsequent fungal and bacterial attack while submerged in water. A complex taphonomy to be unraveled. Those long white lines making a star shape are chalcedony-filled desiccation cracks from extreme drying. There are pockets of fungal rot and bacterial degradation evident within the areas between the desiccation cracks. Our conclusion – we are fortunate that the log even survived long enough to become petrified and luckier yet that it turned out so beautifully! There are absolutely no growth rings (not even indistinct ones) which is a good correlation with the tropical nature of climate in south Texas during the Miocene.
7” x 6” on polished face; slab 5/8” thick $65
Fleming/Oakville Formation Miocene
George West area, Live Oak County, Texas
** A wildly handsome specimen with incredibly sharp contrast of colors creating a scene-stealing pattern. The main problem we see with this slab is that it may diminish the appearance of any other slab from your collection in a display! Of course, you notice that we cannot get a good taxonomic identification on this specimen – and for good reason. The amount of rot and digestion and decomposition is formidable in this specimen. It appears that it has suffered both desiccation due to extreme drying and subsequent fungal and bacterial attack while submerged in water. A complex taphonomy to be unraveled. Those long white lines making a star shape are chalcedony-filled desiccation cracks from extreme drying. There are pockets of fungal rot and bacterial degradation evident within the areas between the desiccation cracks. Our conclusion – we are fortunate that the log even survived long enough to become petrified and luckier yet that it turned out so beautifully! There are absolutely no growth rings (not even indistinct ones) which is a good correlation with the tropical nature of climate in south Texas during the Miocene.
7” x 6” on polished face; slab 5/8” thick $65
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Dicot (Angiospermae)
Jackson Group; Eocene Tessman Ranch, near Falls City, Karnes County, Texas ** Another great find out of an old collection. If you are familiar with Texas wood collecting localities, you are most likely to be familiar with the great mustard yellow specimens from the old Tessman Ranch. Our experience is that most of the wood from there is either palm or conifer so we were pleased to find this dicot from the locality. If you have Tessman specimens in your collection, you already know that the preservation is generally only fair and that also applies to this specimen. See our photomicrograph for confirmation - there are plenty of vessels but not enough to really make a determination other than it is NOT palm or conifer. If your collection values diversity of taxons from various classic localities, this one is right for you! As a side note - some of these place names bring a smile to our faces. Falls City latest population stats indicate a total of just over 500 people live in that "city." No doubt, when it was founded, the original settlers thought it would someday become a "city" rather than a "village"! 4.5" x 2.5" on polished face; 3/8" thick slab $45 |
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Palmoxylon
Bopesta Formation Miocene
Horse Canyon, near Tehachapi, California
** A wonderful palm specimen from the Horse Canyon locality near Tehachapi. Remember that this locality was very active for collecting in the 1950s and 1960s but mainly for Horse Canyon green moss agate which was a popular lapidary material for jewelry and crafts. Occasionally, a chunk of petrified would be found but overall, very little of this material was ever recovered. The owner of the ranch died 25 years ago and the entire area was closed to any public collecting by his heirs (who still live there but want no rock collectors to enter the property). Larger palm slabs like this out of older collections are those that were found in the strata while looking for moss agates. That is why we only see these kinds of pieces out of venerable collections.
Palm is described in the Tehachapi fossil leaf flora that was published in the Carnegie Institution Contributions to Paleontology publication number 516 A Miocene Flora from the Western Border of the Mojave Desert.
8.5” x 5.5” on polished face; 3/8” thick slab $80
Bopesta Formation Miocene
Horse Canyon, near Tehachapi, California
** A wonderful palm specimen from the Horse Canyon locality near Tehachapi. Remember that this locality was very active for collecting in the 1950s and 1960s but mainly for Horse Canyon green moss agate which was a popular lapidary material for jewelry and crafts. Occasionally, a chunk of petrified would be found but overall, very little of this material was ever recovered. The owner of the ranch died 25 years ago and the entire area was closed to any public collecting by his heirs (who still live there but want no rock collectors to enter the property). Larger palm slabs like this out of older collections are those that were found in the strata while looking for moss agates. That is why we only see these kinds of pieces out of venerable collections.
Palm is described in the Tehachapi fossil leaf flora that was published in the Carnegie Institution Contributions to Paleontology publication number 516 A Miocene Flora from the Western Border of the Mojave Desert.
8.5” x 5.5” on polished face; 3/8” thick slab $80
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Conifer (Pinales Order)
Columbia Plateau Basalts, Miocene Yakima Canyon, Kittitas County, Washington ** Beautiful specimen with really nice patterning and cut thick, the old-fashioned way. It comes from the one of the several digging areas in Yakima Canyon between the cities of Yakima and Ellensburg. This section comes from a growing root of a tree that must have lasted hundreds of years. The growth rings are very, very close together - as many as 40 to the inch. As a bonus, there is a bit of forest floor material adhering to the edge of the upper right in the photo (approximately the 8:00 position) with the roots of other plants and trees. One of our favorite customers refers to slabs like this as "bulls-eye" slabs. It is a beauty. 9” x 6” on polished face, 3/4” thick slab $83 |
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Bald Cypress (Taxodium sp.)
Inyan-Kara Group, Lakota Formation, Early Cretaceous Black Hills, South Dakota ** FINALLY! We have collector quality slabs from the Black Hills area of South Dakota. It has always been a mystery as to why we do not see it often (or … really, at all). Various "Petrified Forest" tourist attractions have existed on private lands for nearly a century and perhaps the fear of not having their tourist attraction any longer has hobbled the availability of specimens for collectors. We simply don't have an answer to the mystery but now that we have some very nice slabs, we presumably don't need an answer. The attraction Black Hills Petrified Forest near Piedmont is one of the largest outcrops and oldest attractions and while their website says they sell South Dakota petrified wood, the only picture of collector interest is of Blue Forest wood. Other attractions in the past have borne the names "Timber of Ages" and "Skyline Petrified Forest," and while we are uncertain as to which attraction our slab was collected, we are assured that it is the Lakota Formation since that is the strata from which all Black Hills wood has been found. If your collection strategy includes having as many localities represented as possible, this is likely going to be a "must have" for you. The bald cypress slab is made all the more attractive by the patterning produced by pecky rot fungus. In appearance, this slab looks like it could have been cut from a dead and down log in modern forests! 4.5" x 4 " on the polished face; 1/2" thick slab $74 |
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