What is this thing?

[Urughak]

Found in/near a black swampy area with beavers.... thought the beaver was gnawing on it at first and hence thought was a gnawed tree but i don't see any felled tree around and it's definitely squareish (with protruding bumps on sides) and an odd (growth?) ring in middle. Is this new since the wipe?

[Bluestone]

They are just piles of wood, there are a few names for them floating around the forums. According to file names it's just woodheap (taken from "gfx/terobjs/woodheap" for ender's radar).

You can chop wood blocks from them.

EDIT: Or do you mean the tiny cliff you are standing next to?

[Sevenless]

Woodpiles or deadfalls. With lore of the lumberwoods (I believe) wood blocks can be harvest very quickly and efficiently from them. As far as we know, they are only spawned at world gen.

[staxjax]

It is a minecraft-style tree block. It looks like somebody already harvested the wood from the rest of the tree.

[MagicManICT]

It is a minecraft-style tree block. It looks like somebody already harvested the wood from the rest of the tree.

/facepalm

[rogoku]

It is a minecraft-style tree block. It looks like somebody already harvested the wood from the rest of the tree.

/facepalm

He's actually talking about the square thing.

/facepalm

[sabinati]

that's a 1x1 cliff, dude

[Bluestone]

It is a minecraft-style tree block. It looks like somebody already harvested the wood from the rest of the tree.

/facepalm

He's actually talking about the square thing.

/facepalm

He referenced minecraft, everything in minecraft is square...

/facepalm

[APXEOLOG]

It is a minecraft-style tree block. It looks like somebody already harvested the wood from the rest of the tree.

this one is the best!

[TotalyMoo]

It's a soul mirror, if you manage to find the Tome of Undying you can use the mirror to discover your inner beast. What will follow is most likely a thousand years of darkness and suffering for all mankind.

Or it's simply a bugged 1x1 block.