Posted 7 years ago
lougren
(1 item)
I inherited this fossil. The packaging was labeled as a "Petrified Wasp Nest" I have no clue. Can anyone identify this fossil? Is it of any value? Thanks
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Google tabulate corals.
Honeycombs weathering??
I'm with martika. That's exactly what I thought...a slice of it.
I'm with martiika tabulate coral.
Clicking on the pictures show it's a wasp nest. You can see how the wasps built it up with mud. It's not 'petrified', which means turned to rock by the replacement of organic structures with minerals dissolved in water. If the wasp nest had been submerged, the mud would have disintegrated rather than be slowly replaced by minerals. It's hardened, dry mud.
noob,
Thanks for your comment. FYI the nest is solid rock hard, and does not chip when tapped with hammer and chisel, nor does it smear when water applied. Again it is turned to stone. Thanks again
Then it could be a casting of insect tunnels (e.g.: termite, ant). A thin slurry of cement (sometimes molten aluminum) is poured into ant or termite nests in the ground so that the liquid fills their network of tunnels, then when the cement/ metal hardens, it's dug out.
is it a strange piece of tafoni? i don't believe that it was made by wasps, because the chambers are all different sizes and shapes. wasps make them perfectly regular - at least to the human eye.