Reviews
7.6" Petrified "Peanut Wood" Round - Australia
This is a 7.6" polished slab of petrified conifer wood from Australia known as "Peanut Wood". It is actually petrified driftwood that is full of boreholes from clam larvae of the genus Teredo, commonly know as shipworms. These boreholes were filled in by a white mineral during the fossilization process, giving this petrified wood its unique appearance. The wood itself is from Aruacaria, a type of conifer and is Lower Cretaceous in age, or approximately 113 million years old.
It comes with an acrylic display stand.
It comes with an acrylic display stand.
About Petrified "Peanut Wood"
Petrified peanut wood from Australia is one of the most distinctive forms of fossilized wood, instantly recognizable by its bold white “peanut-shaped” spots set within a darker brown to black matrix. These striking patterns aren’t growth rings or mineral veins—they’re the preserved burrows of ancient marine shipworms (Teredo-type clam larvae) that infested the drifting conifer wood roughly 110–120 million years ago. As the wood floated in warm Cretaceous seas, the larvae bored deep, cylindrical tunnels through the soft interior. When the wood eventually sank and became buried in sediment, these empty borings later filled with light-colored minerals such as silica, creating the high-contrast textures that make peanut wood so recognizable and collectible today.
The host wood itself originated from ancient Araucaria trees, but it’s the activity of these shipworms that tells the real story. Their borings reveal that the wood spent time afloat in prehistoric oceans before fossilization, capturing a rare moment where marine and terrestrial environments intersected. As mineral-rich groundwater permeated the buried driftwood, the organic tissue was gradually replaced by silica, preserving both the wood structure and the shipworm tunnels in remarkable detail. The result is a visually stunning fossil that showcases not only the anatomy of an ancient conifer, but also the imprint of the tiny organisms that once lived inside it—making Australian peanut wood a beautiful intersection of biology, geology, and deep-time storytelling.
Petrified peanut wood from Australia is one of the most distinctive forms of fossilized wood, instantly recognizable by its bold white “peanut-shaped” spots set within a darker brown to black matrix. These striking patterns aren’t growth rings or mineral veins—they’re the preserved burrows of ancient marine shipworms (Teredo-type clam larvae) that infested the drifting conifer wood roughly 110–120 million years ago. As the wood floated in warm Cretaceous seas, the larvae bored deep, cylindrical tunnels through the soft interior. When the wood eventually sank and became buried in sediment, these empty borings later filled with light-colored minerals such as silica, creating the high-contrast textures that make peanut wood so recognizable and collectible today.
The host wood itself originated from ancient Araucaria trees, but it’s the activity of these shipworms that tells the real story. Their borings reveal that the wood spent time afloat in prehistoric oceans before fossilization, capturing a rare moment where marine and terrestrial environments intersected. As mineral-rich groundwater permeated the buried driftwood, the organic tissue was gradually replaced by silica, preserving both the wood structure and the shipworm tunnels in remarkable detail. The result is a visually stunning fossil that showcases not only the anatomy of an ancient conifer, but also the imprint of the tiny organisms that once lived inside it—making Australian peanut wood a beautiful intersection of biology, geology, and deep-time storytelling.
$265
SPECIES
Aruacaria sp.
LOCATION
Jacobs Gully, Mooka Station, Western Australia
FORMATION
Windalia Radiolarite Formation
SIZE
7.6 x 7", .4" thick
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#255783
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