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Fossil hunting trip to Couvin (Devonian of Belgium)
ziggycardon posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hi everyone! Today I went on another fossil hunting trip with the fossil club the BVP. https://www.paleontica.org/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=3&language=en We visited the "La Couvinoise" quarry in Couvin, Belgium. The rocks in this quarry are part of the Hanonet Formation which lies at the boundry of the Eifelian & Givetian. But the layers we searched in today where all Givetian in age (387,7 - 382,7 mya), I mainly searched in the Crinoïd & Brachiopod layer. Although I have to admit that we probably visited the quarry at a bad moment, as the yield was quite poor in the quarry this time according to members who've been there before. Which was quite obvious as I think we only found our first fossil rich rocks after 50 minutes of searching and even then the first hour of finds where few and poor in quality. But after a while of searching I found some good and rich blocks and managed to get some decent Crinoïd stems, Brachiopods and some rugose coral pieces. But the best 3 finds we did during the last 30 minutes of being in the quarry. The 1st one was the only Trilobite I found during the hunt! Trilos are very rare from this quarry and I believe only 1 other member found one before me on this trip. I found a pygidium which is still partially enbedded in rock. At first I wasn't sure whether I was a trilo or a brachiopod but after having a couple of other members checking it out, they all believed it to be trilobite. The excursion leader time was quite amazed by the find as this trilo came from the Crinoïd layer, which is a layer where he believed no trilobite had ever been found. The trilobites are usually found in another part and layer a bit further in the quarry. So yeah I am very pleased with that find! The 2nd best find, was one I didn't find myself but recieved from our Excursion leader Tom, which was a piece of very nice Stromatoporoidea which I wasn't lucky enough to find. The 3rd best find an perhaps my favorite was something that Tom told me to check out. He had discovered the remains of a cave that collapsed during some excavations in the quarry. You could clearly see the remains of dripping stones on the walls and luckily for us, some pieces of those dripping stones where also laying on the ground. So I managed to take a nice piece of them home with me They are encrusted with a layer of dried mud but I am sure they will look gorgeous once they are cleaned! The rings are already clearly visable in some areas. Here are some pictures from inside the quarry. This was the way to the newly excavated plateau which unfortunatly was a complete was of time as not a single fossil could be found in those rocks. After that we went to the other lower parts of the quarry where I mainly worked in a single piece of wall in the Crinoïd layer. I was lucky enough to find a few good fallen blocks and some good places in the wall with some decent Crinoïds and Brachiopods. One of the nice Crinoïds stems I found in the layer. And here is the piece of wall that has some of the dripping stones in it.