Fossilised tree?

[Tom D]

Saw this on the beach today, there are quite a few fossils there, what do you recon? The only other think I think it could be would be some kind of coral which grew seasonal rings....

[Peasgood]

Giant clam

[agg221]

It looks to me like a piece of sedimentary rock, the circles being the layers - this is because you can see a split starting down a layer at the top right. Fossilised tree stem tends to be formed from silica, so it looks a bit like flint until you inspect it carefully.

 

Alec

[Daniël Bos]

Unless you also find a fossilized cross-cut saw, I doubt you'd ever get a fossilized cross section like that (trees failing in a more ragged way generally) but I'm no expert at all.

[Tom D]

It looks to me like a piece of sedimentary rock, the circles being the layers - this is because you can see a split starting down a layer at the top right. Fossilised tree stem tends to be formed from silica, so it looks a bit like flint until you inspect it carefully.

 

Alec

 

That wouldn't explain the complete circles, I have seen sedimentary rock folded before but on a much bigger scale.

 

I would imagine the rings are exposed because a tree trunk was fossilised and once it had formed rock it them cracked giving a fairly clean break.

 

It could be a stromatolite maybe??

[daltontrees]

Looks metamorphioc to me. Where exactly did you find it?

[Stubby]

Its not a fossilized tree ...Its me .. Old Stubby ......

[Tom D]

Looks metamorphioc to me. Where exactly did you find it?

 

Its in a band of sandstone that lies under limestone exposed by the sea, there are a lot of fossils in the other rocks around there, the rings form a cylinder, like a tree, I should have taken more pictures really. I just can't think of a way in which concentric cylindrical rings could form without some kind of life being involved.

 

The rocks are Dinantian which is early carboniferous, they are about 350 million years old.

[sloth]

Could it be a layered rock weathered round?

Picture this, a block made up flat layers glued together. Now carve a ball out of it, and look down on it. Wouldn't that create concentric rings?

 

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[Tom D]

Could it be a layered rock weathered round?

Picture this, a block made up flat layers glued together. Now carve a ball out of it, and look down on it. Wouldn't that create concentric rings?

 

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Yes, but these not a ball shape its a reasonably flat cross section.. Given that limestone is formed under the sea I think its more likely to be some kind of sea life, but I don't know what.