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This listing is for a large, beautiful piece of peanut wood, ideal for lapidary work or display as is.
Weight: 13 lbs & 2 oz; (5,978 g)
Width at widest section: 9"Height: 5.5"Depth: 7"
The last 8 pictures show this piece wet to highlight color & detail.
What is peanut wood?
Peanut wood is an unusual petrified driftwood that is recognized for its dark brown color & white/cream color markings that are about the size of a peanut.
Most peanut wood began its life as a conifer tree in what is now known as Western Australia some 100-120 million years ago, arriving there as larger pieces of driftwood. During the cretaceous period, marine clams larva would tunnel into the wood & eat it. As the larva grew, they developed sharp valves that they could use to shave off pieces of wood, eventually excavating chambers inside the wood that are shaped like peanuts.
Additionally, radiolarians (tiny planktonic organisms that secrete a siliceous shell) were present in the seawater above the decaying logs. The same river waters that deposited the dead trees were also rich in nutrients that the radiolarian plankton thrive upon. As the radiolarians died, their shells accumulated a white sediment, which then entered the tunnels/holes already present from the marine clams, giving the holes their unique appearance today.
Lastly, after spending millions of years buried under sediment, the dead trees became petrified wood. Geological uplift has brought some of these pieces up to the surface in the Kennedy Mountains which are now about 100 miles inland in Western Australia.
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