BALD CYPRESS from Eoulx, France polished petrified wood

Description

Bald Cypress  Taxodium sp.)
Upper Eocene/Lower Oligocene
Eoulx, Castellane Commune, France
Wow!  This is definitely a new and unique locality for us.  I've asked some of our European friends if they had heard of wood from Eoulx, France but none had.  We acquired this log from a French dealer in Tucson 1n 2019 and the label mysteriously noted that it was from the collection of "C.P." but following the European strictness about privacy, the dealer would not divulge more about the person but he did include the provenance information.  So, at least one French collector of olden days was familiar with the site.  The tiny village of Eoulx  is just  a few kilometers to the east of Castellane, the town that bears the same name as the Castellane Commune (the smallest administrative territorial division in France - roughly commensurate with a county here in the USA.)  Geologically, both communities sit on a thrust fault that exposes strata of a Tertiary sedimentary foreland basin, created by subduction of the North African Plate under the European Plate.   We have included a rough geologic map of the region in our photos and annotated it with the village of Eoulx.  These foreland basins are exceptionally complex geological structures in the French Alps - they have long been one of the most fascinating puzzles of French Geology.  The Upper Eocene/Lower Oligocene foreland basin has recently been described as a sand-rich, turbidite submarine ramp fed by multiple-source fan deltas - an environment that definitely had an impact on the petrification of wood.  This log likely was swept into the sea by a major flood event that immediately buried the log under sand on that submarine ramp - the ancient Mediterranean Sea is called the Tethys Sea by geologists.  Sand may not have been able to deliver silica into the log as quickly as perhaps a volcanic ash could have, but we are still fortunate that preservation took place in the outer half of the log.  The inner half may well have already been subjected to heart rot before being swept by the flood because it has no visible structural preservation of the anatomy.  One of the interesting microscopic features of this slab is the presence of leaf traces (actually the trace of the leaf petiole) which appear sporadically in some of the growth cycles. This may have been the result of leaf propagation in the trunk or branch when weather conditions were particularly conducive to vigorous growth.  Please see our photomicrograph in this listing for a view of some of the leaf traces among the tracheids of this slab.  While they first appear to be large, odd shaped resin canals, they are indeed leaf petiole traces.
This slab measures 4.5 x 3 inches on the polished face and it is 3/8 inch thick.
We specialize in petrified wood and plant fossils which are accurately identified as to locality of origin and family, genus or species. We don’t guess and when we don’t know, we say so! Your specimen will come with a label identifying the specimen, the locality where it was collected, the formation and age of the material and any other pertinent information we have gleaned from our literature search.
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