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EducationPetrified fruit.
13th Dec 2011 16:37 UTCAndy Klotz
He told me his uncle had found them in a mound of earth at his orchard in New Zealand. I was confused at the time, having read that silicification of wood took millions of years. Fruit rots very quickly or at least shrivels but these were pretty intact.
Anyone have any ideas as to how short a time the silicification process might in fact take? keeping in mind that apples and pears have not been around long in New Zealand.
Has anyone seen or heard of any other petrified fruit?
13th Dec 2011 18:03 UTCRobert Knox
As far as fossil fruit...I picked up a supposed "quartz psudomorph of baryte" , that was later identified as a petrified breadfruit. It's from the Henry Mts. of Utah, and dated from the Cretaceous. The only other petrified fruit I've personally seen were figs.
13th Dec 2011 18:03 UTCD Mike Reinke
I've been to Funk's gem and mineral museum in Shirly, Illinois, a pretty cool museum for a one man operation. Look it up online. Bill Case is the guy who shows you around. He shows you a petrified mushroom that doesn't seem like it could have taken many years to happen: He said Mr. Funk didn't finish cataloging everything so there is no record of where it was from, and no one has any others, so info is very limited. Coprolite is claimed to be dinosaur dung, and that couldn't have taken too long, it would seem. That is a very low budget item at all the mineral shows, but at least it is not sold for it's healing powers! I've heard of dinosaurs being mummified, not just skeletons, but haven't seen real detailed information on that, either. So this won't answer your question, others can weigh in, i'd like more info on this, like you do. take care.
mike
13th Dec 2011 18:39 UTCAndy Klotz
So it seems that these highly perishable things must be converted pretty quick. A mushroom doesn't last long usually or a piece of dung. Oh I heard that the copralites are good for curing constipation.
I shall have a look at that museum site later, thanks Mike!
I'd be interested to see a photo of the breadfruit Robert, sounds like a great score.
Cheers!
13th Dec 2011 20:14 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager
13th Dec 2011 20:45 UTCDonald Slater
14th Dec 2011 00:36 UTCIbrahim Jameel Expert
http://v3.zachmargolis.com/img/blog/41/DSC00692.jpg
14th Dec 2011 00:41 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder
14th Dec 2011 02:24 UTCNorman King 🌟 Expert
14th Dec 2011 05:55 UTCAndy Klotz
In regards to the pear and apple, they came complete with the calyx at one end and the stem on one was snapped like you would expect. The silica rich ground water common in some parts of New Zealand could be responsible.
Worth looking at is this site about the silica teraces that disappeard sudenly along with a vilage in a volcanic eruption-
www.newzealand.com/.../nature_pink-terraces-found.
14th Dec 2011 16:53 UTCRobert Knox
Dinosaurs mummified...? A researcher managed to extract some protein strands from the marrow of a mesozoic dino, in a fossilized femur(I believe). It made big news as the strands were still flexible. I'm not sure if they collected whole DNA, or just fragments. The bone was otherwise normally petrified.
I have acquired dozens of petrified wood samples through the years that have incredible preservation. By far the most detailed are from a lower Permian forest in Brazil. Even under 50x magnification, the preservation is incredible. Most of the specimens aren't really "wood" at all, but are from seed ferns/tree ferns and the last of the giant club moss species. Early conifer/pre-conifer are the exceptions. I also have a small round of an American NW hardwood(30 mybp), that at 20x magnification clearly shows eggs of some insect in the middle. In fact I've seen many examples of this.
The point is that nothing would surprise me when it comes to petrification.
14th Dec 2011 20:08 UTCD Mike Reinke
Have you seen this? National Geographic news. Is any of this ever been put on display anywhere? Certainly if there is a whole forest, there's fruit, no? Wonder what shape it is in.
Giant Underground Fossil Forests Show Record of Warming
FWIW
mike
14th Dec 2011 23:00 UTCJenna Mast
I know, a little different from petrification but still interesting!
19th Dec 2011 16:20 UTCD Mike Reinke
mike
19th Dec 2011 17:51 UTCRobert Knox
Fossilized means 10,000 years of age or older, and not necessarily "turned to stone".
Bob
20th Dec 2011 00:38 UTCNorman King 🌟 Expert
Robert: Petrified, lithified, and mineralized all refer to the general situation. You can be more precise such as silicified or agatized only if you know what material has replaced the original remains. A fossil must indeed be at least 10,000 years old. That is the arbitrary date chosen to mark the beginning of the Holocene Epoch. It corresponds to the date that glaciers had pretty much left the U.S. lower 48 (but were still present in Canada). So, fossils must be remains from an earlier geological age. You are correct that no alteration need have occurred to be a fossil. You just gotta be old.
20th Dec 2011 02:45 UTCDavid Garske
Dave
21st Dec 2011 16:43 UTCNorman King 🌟 Expert
Yesterday (20 Dec) I saw additional posts, some critical of the identification of the fossils as remains of dinosaurs, and discussion over getting photos displayed here on mindat. Those may have been the second page postings. But today, there is no page 2 and the more recent posts are gone. What happened?
I may be critical of them, too, but I want to see them before announcing that (Duh!).
Among other things, photos of that material, if it is not dinosaurian, may shed some light on why that interpretation was nevertheless made. Maybe some of it is of biological origin and therefore legitimate fossils.
The coprolite photos posted earlier appear to indeed show coprolites.
Is it my system that is messed up?
21st Dec 2011 18:38 UTCClifford Trebilcock
I noted same thing, maybe Jolyon can shed a light. Think I noted an inappropriate remark posted toward the end of the page.
Cliff
21st Dec 2011 20:27 UTCD Mike Reinke
I noticed another thread that got really loopy/creepy is gone too, several pages. Must be some necessary housecleaning from the mindat staff. I don't believe any pictures other than the first one of the subject were ever posted, last time I looked. When it got to ' I see what you don't" it lost all relevance, don't you think? That is why this is mindat, not beliefdat or witchdat! lol. Thanks mindat.
mike
21st Dec 2011 20:49 UTCNorman King 🌟 Expert
Season's greetings, everyone.
21st Dec 2011 21:44 UTCPeter Andresen Expert
21st Dec 2011 21:54 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder
Jolyon
21st Dec 2011 22:21 UTCNorman King 🌟 Expert
Jolyon: Yeah, and I remember the thread involving a space-cadet who wanted us to confirm he had found the remains of exploded planets (or something like that) that had impacted the Earth, and the cadet wasn’t going to shut up until we did. I thought I sank his ship in the end, but maybe you did something I wasn’t even aware of.
As for the dinosaurs, it’s one thing to claim to have found readily fossilizable dinosaur bones in Australia, but quite another to claim to have found Archaeopteryx and Microraptor head mummies, complete with feather impressions. Laurie said he would send a photo of the eye area somewhere else on the snout. I mean, it’s killing me! I really wanted to see those!
22nd Dec 2011 15:23 UTCAndy Klotz
I appreciate both frankness and diplomacy in different peoples takes on things.
Found quite a nice article explaining experiments in the process of rapid petrification of wood using water glass. Here's the link.
http://www.ncsec.org/cadre2/team2_2/Lessons/howDoesWoodPetrify.htm
I would like to try the experiment some time using fruit.
I know its off topic but here's that coprolite again from Nundle NSW Aust. just to add a little visual interest to the thread.And caus I think its kinda cool.
22nd Dec 2011 18:19 UTCRobert Knox
I too, was looking forward to the possible dino pics. I have several Jurassic wood & fern species from Queensland, and often wondered about their possible animal kingdom contemporaries.
Andy, I will still try to get some photos posted of the breadfruit. By the way...love the poop!
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Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 23, 2024 06:47:00