A couple imprint fossils and interesting petrified wood

[pRoDiEuS]

Here are some imprinted fossils i have found. Not sure what they are imprints of. The small one i believe is part of some kind of fish and the other is of a plant maybe.

possible plant imprint. I cant remember where i found this. I believe the slave lake alberta area when inwas a kid.

possible fish imprint. This was found in the slave lake river.

This is a piece of petrified wood. This is a very interesting piece to me beceauce it looks like it has been clean cut on both sides. Is this possibly cut by a prehistoric human? What are your thoughts? I found this in southern alberta in the badlands.

 

[d_day]

Those look like natural fractures to me. It's not unusual for pet wood to fracture in such a way.

[Rocky]

Those are some really excellent pieces you're recovering, I'm interested to here about the wood because I concur with what you are saying about the cut ends unless it was the way it crystalized and fractured off at those points was just a lucky clean break, any time a break in wood occurs cross grain it's very very difficult to break so cleanly, I just don't think it happens that way at all, clean across unless it's cut. Awesome finds man!!!

Edited February 19, 2018 by Rocky

[4meter]

The first two photos look like coral fragments.  Not enough detail to go much beyond that.

[pRoDiEuS]

Is it actually possible for the wood to fracture right across the grain like that on both sides to give it the clean cut across look? 

Ya i am not sure what made the imprints. I thought they were cool though. Could be coral i guess. I will have to look into it more and see what else has been found in the area before.

[d_day]

1 hour ago, pRoDiEuS said:

Is it actually possible for the wood to fracture right across the grain like that on both sides to give it the clean cut across look? 

Ya i am not sure what made the imprints. I thought they were cool though. Could be coral i guess. I will have to look into it more and see what else has been found in the area before.

Once it's been petrified it can fracture cleanly in any direction. It all depends on what stresses are put on it, and in what direction.

[Au Seeker]

3 hours ago, Rocky said:

Those are some really excellent pieces you're recovering, I'm interested to here about the wood because I concur with what you are saying about the cut ends unless it was the way it crystalized and fractured off at those points was just a lucky clean break, any time a break in wood occurs cross grain it's very very difficult to break so cleanly, I just don't think it happens that way at all, clean across unless it's cut. Awesome finds man!!!

 

2 hours ago, pRoDiEuS said:

Is it actually possible for the wood to fracture right across the grain like that on both sides to give it the clean cut across look? 

Ya i am not sure what made the imprints. I thought they were cool though. Could be coral i guess. I will have to look into it more and see what else has been found in the area before.

First and foremost it's important to realize that "fossilized wood" is just that, it no longer has any traits related to wood as to how it breaks, splits ect., because it's now rock, if you look at photos taken from areas that have fossilized wood such as the "Pretrified Forest" you will see many pieces of fossilized wood that looks like trunk sections of firewood that still needs to be split, they look just like they were cut with a saw, but it takes millions and millions of years for wood to fossilized so none of these pieces were cut by man.

Now that being said there are some pieces that won't/don't break so cleanly, it may be because of the types of minerals that the wood has become while becoming fossilized or what caused it to break, stress points, etc..

Here's a few photos of pieces where they have been for millions of years for example, the first and third photos are from the Petrified Forest, the second one is from Egypt.

  

[Morlock]

51 minutes ago, d_day said:

Once it's been petrified it can fracture cleanly in any direction. It all depends on what stresses are put on it, and in what direction.

I've seen petrified wood that split with the grain. It came from the pacific northwest. I really think it was semi- petrified. It was hard and took a good polish but you could cleave it with the grain. Only saw it in a couple large pieces.

[pRoDiEuS]

That's very interesting! Thanks for the info. I love the pics of the petrified forests. It would be awesome to have a bit of that.. it makes a lot of sense now about why the petrified wood I have is the way it is. Two quick question about it. Is it worth polishing up petrified wood? And what is the best way to do it?

[d_day]

6 hours ago, pRoDiEuS said:

Two quick question about it. Is it worth polishing up petrified wood? And what is the best way to do it?

That depends on a lot of things. The quality of the stone is probably most important. If it's chalky or porous it won't polish well. If it's a good solid silica replacement it should polish beautifully. As for how to do it, well there's lots of different ways it can be done. Best bet would be to look up a local lapidary club and head down there. They can get you started on your way to doing something with it.