Erosion rocks

Erosion was and still is a battle on the grasslands. However, erosion areas are a great place to look for rocks and petrified wood. The wood is not actually wood any longer of course. It is known as a replacement fossil unlike an impression fossil. TxDOT has a neat poster of Texas Rocks & Fossils.

Small pieces are washed out of the banks.

Various sizes can be found.

A grasshopper nymph only sat still for a moment among the pebbles.

Empty reptile eggs must have made a nice meal or perhaps they had hatched. It appeared that the egg was fairly round. And not a fossil yet. 😉
An odd puffball on the trunk of an oak. . At first I though this was going to be an insect casing.

However, when I sliced it open, no larva was found. So my conclusion was that it was a fungus.

Purty lichens!

This was my biggest chunk of petrified wood on this outing.

So this was my favorite rock of the day.

A closer look reveals why I liked it. In fact, it is not often I find a piece that shows where a branch was once attached.

My rock hunting days are behind me, but I still enjoy looking at fossils and petrified wood from so long ago.

The Fossil Flowers That Rewrote the History of Life

Paisia, an Early Cretaceous eudicot angiosperm flower with pantoporate pollen from Portugal (photos of some of the fossil flowers in this paper)

Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know

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