Palm Fossil

[freakypalmguy]

I was in Denver International Airport yesterday and saw this in a display case. They found many fossils such as this one during the construction of DIA. Sorry about the quality of the pic, I only had my camera phone with me. It's a little weird to think of Denver and palm trees together. I believe it said it was a Sabal sp.

[Josh]

Thats from the Green River Formation in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. It was sub-tropical forest during global warming times in the past. Here's some palm fossils for sale if you have a lot money sitting around....

fossils

[Caryota_gigas]

Small coconut like seeds sometimes wash up on upper East Coast, North Island beaches in New Zealand. They are similar to Jubaea/Parajubaea/Syagrus and are dated from around 16 million years ago. There is no palm like that here now. New Zealand now only has Rhopalostylis sapida. Shame...

An article on New Zealands extinct palms can be found here.

[Kathryn]

Petrified palm wood is the Louisiana state fossil and the Texas state stone. Here's part of an article linked below.

A type of petrified wood that is found in Louisiana is called "petrified palm wood". Petrified Palm wood is a group of fossil woods that contain prominent rod-like structures within the regular grain of the silicified wood. Depending upon the angle at which they are cut by fracture, these rod-like structures show up as spots, tapering rods, or continuous lines. The rod-like structures are sclerenchyma bundles that comprise part of the woody tissues that gave the wood its vertical strength (Blackwell 1984).

The Louisiana Legislature designated "petrified palm wood" as the state fossil in Act No. 362 (Senate Bill No. 155) of the 1976 session. This act does not specify a specific species or genera of fossil plant as palm wood and there are a number of genera that are considered palm wood. However, the petrified palm wood found in Louisiana consists entirely of the petrified wood of the genus Palmoxylon. From Louisiana, Berry (1916) records the presence of three species of Palmoxylon from Louisiana, P. microxylon, P. cellulosum, and P. lacunosum. Another species of Palmoxylon, P. texense, is reported from Texas and three species of Palmoxylon, P. remotum, P. mississippense, and P. ovatum, are reported from Mississippi and could also occur in Louisiana (Berry 1916). These species of Palmoxylon would also be considered palm wood.

See full article here: http://www.intersurf.com/~chalcedony/Palm.html

[paulgila]

wow,that would look really good in my living room!

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Paul, I'll let you borrow it from my living room while I am on vacations!

[paulgila]

i may be closer to denver so whoever gets there 1st...