Zebra petrified wood

Hardwoods have been around for at least 100 million years (almost as long as I have ). Plenty of time to petrify.

Ron

Stephan, thanks for the link. I was going to look up when maples evolved, but you saved me the time. 67 million years ago... well, that fits with the age of this pet.wood, which is supposed to be 60-90 million years old. Of course, it wouldn't have to be maple, any prehistoric tree that had distinct banding would fill the role.

Once a year they have a thing here at the provincial museum where the public can bring in fossils and have them looked at by an expert. Maybe I should try that and get their input. As I understand it, fossil laws (and I preume fossil includes pet.wood) are kinda weird here... you are allowed to surface collect but you can't sell or transport the material out of province, unless you get written permission from the government folks, and some assessment of your material to prove that it isn't paleontologically important. The provincial government is considered the owner, you are just the holding it for them, so to speak. I presume they weren't thinking of petwood when they made these -- there are a lot of dinosaur fossils here and I think that is what they want to protect. Still, sometimes I think it's better to just keep your mouth shut and not tell the governing folks what you are up to