50 million year old firewood.

[oldtrucker]

https://explorersweb.com/natural-wonder ... rg-island/
The wood can be cut by chainsaw ,split and burned. The leaves are still moist. It should be all coal by now.
Correct me if my thinking is wishful or delusional but I think that the same process may have happened in other areas up there, and 16 million years earlier than the site( Eocene) in the article. I mean, what is 16 million years? If a forest was buried by the same process and it happened in the cretatous pre Chixulub impact... what I'm getting at is there could be a FLESH AND BLOOD DINOSAUR waiting to be uncovered. Not fossilized, mummified.

[TylerM4]

It's possible I suppose, but still a bit of a long shot.

Dinosaurs went extinct some 15 Million years earlier than the period those trees/stumps were from.

[Jlabute]

Mummified, not necessarily mineralized yet. Not under a lot of pressure so, maybe not yet fossilized? Probably worth more as items of interest :-) Maybe slight mineralization will add some crackling and color to the flames?

[oldtrucker]

It's possible I suppose, but still a bit of a long shot.

Dinosaurs went extinct some 15 Million years earlier than the period those trees/stumps were from.

Yup. But what about 2 valleys over, where 16 million years earlier, the same process of quik burial happened on that river delta which I'm sure covered the region at the time. It was a warm period throughout the cretatous as in 15 degrees warmer, so it's probable those river deltas existed for many millions of years right in that area. I'm sure sea level stayed fairly high and very little if any ice existed up there, not even in winter at night. 60-70 Mya that location was probably further south by hundreds of miles and I bet it connected up with the delta systems that ran along the central seaway that cut north America in half running from gulf of Mexico up thru the prairies into the arctic 67-85 ish Mya
A 65-85 million year old mummified dinosaur would be the coolest thing. Even if it's not a big one and it's only chicken sized. Anything would be the paleontology discovery of all time.
Maybe if we're lucky, mummified Eocene mammals will be at the 50mil year old site.
I imagine over the years when the remains of mummified animals erode out of the ground, the local fauna is treated to a 50 million year old snack.

[TylerM4]

Yup. But what about 2 valleys over, where 16 million years earlier, the same process of quik burial happened on that river delta which I'm sure covered the region at the time.....

Almost anything is possible. Although while 15million years may be a short period of time when compared to the entire history of the planet, it's still 15 Million Years. You're essentially saying that it's possible for the same cooling phenomenon to occur "2 valleys over" but it also occurs 15 million years sooner? Warming and cooling trends typically happen on a global scale, not region by region of valley by valley. By comparison: All of humanity has evolved in a period of time less than 1 million years. A LOT can change in a million years.

It's also important to keep in mind that wood decays much more slowly than flesh. These trees/stumps were preserved by a slow freezing process and for the most part, only the stumps remained. Flesh would have decayed (or been consumed by other animals) before that same preservation process would have taken hold.

As I said - anything is possible, but I find it very unlikely.

[oldtrucker]

Yup. But what about 2 valleys over, where 16 million years earlier, the same process of quik burial happened on that river delta which I'm sure covered the region at the time.....

Almost anything is possible. Although while 15million years may be a short period of time when compared to the entire history of the planet, it's still 15 Million Years. You're essentially saying that it's possible for the same cooling phenomenon to occur "2 valleys over" but it also occurs 15 million years sooner? Warming and cooling trends typically happen on a global scale, not region by region of valley by valley. By comparison: All of humanity has evolved in a period of time less than 1 million years. A LOT can change in a million years.

It's also important to keep in mind that wood decays much more slowly than flesh. These trees/stumps were preserved by a slow freezing process and for the most part, only the stumps remained. Flesh would have decayed (or been consumed by other animals) before that same preservation process would have taken hold.

As I said - anything is possible, but I find it very unlikely.

No cooling that we know of...it was hot from mid miocene back.Just the same kind of flash flood that buried the 50 million year old forest. Hey, 10 years ago if someone told you that you could build a fire or whittle some 50 million year not fossilized but mummified wood you wouldn't believe them. I wouldn't. If it got any better it would be a stargate to the Eocene. This place is magical, and I bet it hasn't started to give up it's treasures.
Ya....2 valleys over. Ya ...mummified fauna.
I don't have a fragment of proof , I'm just giddy after I read about finds like this and if it happened at that location 50 Mya, why not a few kms away and 16 million years earlier. Yea it's 16 million years...not short. But cmon, the thought of a late cretaceous site with the same level of preservation must get your Imagination going