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The Scientific Investigation of Fossil Wood

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The Scientific Investigation of Fossil Wood •THE DEPARTMENT• OF ENVIRONMENTAL• QUAUTY• miSSISSIPPI Bureau of Geology geolo 2525 North West Street P. 0. Box 5348 Volume 10, Number 1 Jackson, Mississippi 39296-5348 September 1989 published February 1990 THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF FOSSIL WOOD Will H. Blackwell Joe H. Marak Department of Botany and Department of Geology Miami University Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056 Oxford, Ohio 45056 INTRODUCTION more reliable than accepting an account of where the material came from from a second party. Taking photographs of the Sufficient interest has developed in fossil wood in the wood " in place" in the field is a sound practice. A perma­ southeastern United States to suggest that information on how nent record book should be kept. It is well to label each to approach its study is in order. This paper consequently specimen of fossil wood with an identifying mark (number deals with a number of topics directly related to the scientific and/or lettering system) and keep such information in the investigation of fossil wood, including: how to collect and record book. It is often possible to write directly on the curate specimens, how wood is fossilized (i.e., the preserva­ specimens in pen or pencil. We have found the best way to tion states), how fossil wood is thin-sectioned for microscopic store specimens is in brown paper sandwich bags, which may examination, and how it is studied and photographed under be labelled as well. It is a good idea to keep all bags from the microscope. Information on literature and publication of a given collection site together in a labelled box, or on the results is also given. It is hoped that this paper will not only same paleontology cabinet tray if such is available. If you do provide information about how to study fossil wood , but will not wish to maintain collections personally, then well labell­ as well stimulate interest in its study. ed, curated specimens are often of interest to a professional museum. Such a museum, however, would generally not be COLLECTION AND CURATING OF SPECIMENS interested in specimens lacking good data. Understanding the geologic age and source (geologic In all cases, careful collection practices concerning fossil stratum) in which the wood occurs (or occurred) is valuable. wood specimens, or any specimens for that matter, are im­ If you know precisely the locality from which the wood came, portant. Accurate collecting information about the source of and what the " formation" or geological unit from which it was the wood can be as valuable as the identification of the wood obtained looked like, then help on the geology is available itself. Collecting specimens first-hand and recording exact in­ at your state geological survey. In Mississippi that is the formation about locality, date, conditions, etc. , is generally Mississippi Bureau of Geology, 2525 North West Street, P.O. Box 5348, Jackson, Mississippi 39216. The Bureau of Geology Although it may also be opaline, some silicified wood from has many bulletins available on the geology of Mississippi, western states forms through the action of volcanic silicates. and also a variety of geologic maps. These may be purchas­ Although petrified wood is the most common type of fossil ed for a very reasonable price. The staff members at the wood encountered,.and has been designated the state stone Bureau are willing to help. However, try to be as informed as of Mississippi, it is not the only form of fossil wood in the state. possible before you ask their assistance. If wood occurs in Lignitized (or coalified) wood, i.e. , wood which has in effect place in a particular formation , then noting the position of the turned to a soft coal (lignite), may also occur, such as that specimens in the formation, and using photography to this which has been found in a bentonite layer of the Tombigbee end, can be very significant. If wood is washed out into a creek Sand, Upper Cretaceous (David Dockery, personal com­ bed, such as that in Thompson Creek, Yazoo County, munication). A third main way that fossil wood may be preserv­ Mississippi (Blackwell and Dukes, 1981), it is often pvssible ed is simply as buried wood which is otherwise unaltered; to deduce the formation from which it came by study of the this category is referred to as " mummified wood." Although formations in the area, in consort with study of bulletins per­ mummified wood doubtless occurs abundantly in Mississip­ taining to that area available at the Bureau. Fossil wood in pi and a number of other states in the Southeastern United Mississippi may be of a variety of geologic ages, varying from States (Brown, 1938), we are most familiar with it in Ohio, Pleistocene, as that of Thompson Creek and Bayou Pierre, buried in various Pleistocene till banks in the southwestern to Cretaceous (Blackwell and Dukes, 1981; Blackwell, 1983; part of the state (Burns, 1958). All three categories of wood Blackwell and others, 1983; Blackwell , 1984; Dockery, 1987; discussed may show comparably good states of preservation Blackwell, 1989). Accurately determining the stratum (forma­ of characteristics of wood; see for example Figures 1-9 for tion) and relative age of your fossil wood adds greatly to the comparison of sections of mummified and silicified wood. study. Silicified wood is readily sectionable without preliminary treat­ ment or preparation; it may, however, occasionally show some HOW FOSSIL WOOD IS PRESERVED distortion or exaggeration of cell wall structure due to im­ (Types of Preservation States) pregnation of silica. Additional techniques are typically re­ quired for the sectioning of lignitized and mummified wood, In work on fossil wood in Mississippi and Ohio, we havt:l as compared with silicified wood, as will be discussed. observed that wood is usually preserved in one of three ways. There are ways in which fossil wood may be preserved Perhaps most typically in Mississippi, and as one usually (especially petrified) additional to those mentioned above, in­ thinks of it, the preservation occurs as siliceous petrifactions, cluding wood which has been pyritized or calcified (Hoskins i.e. , as wood " turned to stone" or " petrified." Fundamental­ and Blickle, 1940). But these modes of fossilization are not ly, the structure of the wood has been either replaced or more as commonly encountered as those already discussed, likely heavily coated (emplaced) with silica (silicon dioxide). especially in Mississippi. Further, the preservation of detail­ Indeed in most cases there is still organic (wood) substance ed wood structure when replaced by either iron disulfide (iron trapped within the petrifactions (Delevoryas, 1962; Leo and pyrite) or calcium carbonate (calcite) is often not particularly Barghoorn, 1976). The cold water (as opposed to volcanic) good nor especially durable (Leo and Barghoorn, 1976), and silicates that infiltrate wood buried in sandy formations here tends to suffer dissolution in the environment. These addi­ and there throughout Mississippi often show up in the wood tional modes of preservation will not be further dealt with in as minerals, either chalcedony or opal; such wood is this discussion. sometimes referred to respectively as agatized or opalized. PLATE 1 Legend for Figures 1·5 Figures 1-3, photomicrographs, X 200, of sections of mummified coniferous wood (spruce, Picea) from late Pleistocene of southwestern Ohio (collected from a till bank, Butler County, near Oxford): (1) Cross section; note resin duct (upper right) near transition from earlywood to latewood zone. (2) Radial longitudinal section; note typical circular coniferous pitting (upper left) and portion of wood ray seen longitudinally (lower right). (3) Tangential longitudinal section; note rays transacted (arrows}, one in upper left-<:enter containing a small resin duct. Figures 4-5, X 200, sections of silicified angiosperm (dicot) wood (hop-hornbeam, Ostrya) from earlier Pleistocene of Mississippi (Perry Creek, Yazoo Co.): (4) Cross section; note vessel cluster (center) flanked above and below by rays, and then by zones of fibers. (5) Radial section; note pitting on vessel (extending above the number 5, arrow). 'ISSIPPI GEOLOGY 2 3 SEPTEMBER 1989 SECTIONING OF FOSSIL WOOD FOR When usmg a rock saw, your material should be sectioned MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION in the plane of three standard wood sections: cross (transverse) section , radial section (longitudinal section A. Silicified (Petrified) Wood paralleling the wood rays), and tangential section (longitudinal section at right angles to the rays). This is best done by cut­ It is rare that the identity of any specimen of fossil wood ting at least two cross sectional pieces first, and then examin­ may be determined solely by macroscopic (external) surface ing the flat faces of these to determine the direction in which examination; fossil palm may often be identified as being fossil the rays occur-one or both cross sections then can be used palm by external viewing, but even in this case it is typically to prepare the two types of longitudinal sections. A dissec­ impossible to assert which type of palm it might be (Blackwell, ting microscope or hand lens may be necessary to see th e 1989). For more standard fossil wood , it is often very difficult direction of the rays. It is perhaps advisable to mark the cut­ to tell even whether it is that of a gymnosperm (e.g .. conifer) ting planes, prior to sawing , with a pencil. Help on understan­ or a dicot simply by external examination. Thus, it is necessary ding the three basic planes (sections) of wood is available to make thin sections of the wood if it is to be identified. in almost any introductory general botany text. Simply refer Figures 4-9 illustrate the detailed structure of a type of silicified to the section detailing the three planes (sections) for view­ wood (hop-hornbeam) found in Mississippi.
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