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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..jpg.ab575832af5fbab9d3391201e5f0e647.jpg)
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Fossil hunting trip to Resteigne (Devonian of Belgium)
ziggycardon posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hi everyone! Yesterday my girlfriend & I went on a fossil hunting trip to an abandoned quarry in Resteigne in Belgium. https://www.paleontica.org/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=10&language=en I am currently at home for some time due to mental health issues. I am currently dealing with despression and severe anxiety attacks all related to COVID-19, I am in a risk group and work in an essential store and the stress and way that people threat you finally became too much and I simply snapped. I finally decided to go see a doctor and a psychologist to help out of it all. Since besides going to work I hadn't left the house for the past 6 months and I really needed to get out to help me get rid of the stress and fear, so both the psychologist and doctor encouraged my to go on some fossilhunts as I needed to come out of the house and do some outdoor activities to help with my healing process. So yesterday I went on my first hunt to help me recover! The quarry we visited was an abandoned quarry in Resteigne and the rocks found there are Devonian in age. Most of the fossils found here are from the Eifelian (393.3 - 387.7 mya) and are part of the Jemelle formation. We arrived quite early at the quarry and spent almost 5 and a half hours searching for fossils here. Since we went on a normal week day, we were lucky enough the have the quarry all to our self! Since it was our first time in the quarry we didn't really find anything too spectacular, but I am very happy with the things we found and most important of all, we had a great and fun day! The surrounding environment was stunning and the weather was prefect, sunny but not too hot and not too cold! Ruguse coral in the rocks Only 15 minutes after we arrived we already found our first trilobite! Unfortunatly it was enbedded in a big boulder of very though rock at an impossible angle to remove. We did try to remove it, but when we noticed it would be near impossible and removing it would probably destroy the trilo we eventually decided to leave it. There where multiple other fossils in the same boulder, among them these nice Brachiopods.jpg.a1bc468431b9b60508a701a70f5cb055.jpg)
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I found this in Nyack, NY near the water, close to where fossils have been discovered before. It looks as though it has some of the characteristics often discussed in this forum in regards to fossilized eg gs. Please forgive me if this is another river stone...
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Dear TFF Members, It’s a bit late after my return, but I needed to wait for the delivery of my spoils by mail, which took a while :). Nevertheless, all the fossils are safely with me now, and I can share this report from the trip to Albania with you. I chose Albania (with a brief visit to Macedonia) as the next destination because it has everything a perfect holiday destination should have, namely: mountains castles lakes seas (Adriatic and Ionian) – btw, the name of the Albanian Riviera is well deserved lagoons with pretty birds canyons and quite a few interesting sites to visit, both from the ancient times, like Butrint to the bunkers from the communist times in Tirana.
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Greetings Guy/gals! I'm making a short trip to Laredo Texas next month. Do any of you know if there's many fossils in that area. I will have a full day to poke around. I'm told that it's hill country, with many old washout creek beds. Any thoughts would be great. I'm a bit new to fossil hunting, so just thinking ahead. Thanks in advance, Joe
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Hey everyone, This year I've been somewhat less active on the forum, although I did check in regularly to make sure I didn't miss anything important. The main reason for this is because this was my last year in secondary school, and, unsurprisingly, that comes with more work than usual (including university application). Even with corona and home-schooling, my workload didn't exactly diminish. However that doesn't mean I haven't been active in the paleo-field! In fact I have gone hunting quite a few times on the Zandmotor and made some cool finds that I'll share soon, and more recently, during my annual trip to the south of France, did some more successful hunting. In July I also went to the east of the Netherlands to go hunting with my friend @Hunter0811 and we found some pretty nice stuff. (I'll make some trip reports with my finds soon.) This year I started playing around with my dad's camera while in France to take some pictures of different animals I came across (mainly butterflies), ID them and submit them to iNaturalist (an app where you can upload your nature observations and make potentially useful scientific contributions, check it out, it's quite nice!), so that's a fun new little hobby I picked up. So for my 18th birthday, which was 4 days ago, my parents got me a sweet new camera! Despite the cancellation of my final exams (due to corona), I did graduate successfully! And, more importantly, my university application went very well: In October, I will officially be starting my MSci Palaeontology & Evolution at the University of Bristol! I am incredibly excited to start getting into paleontology more professionally and spend the next 4 years of my life studying my lifelong passion. According to the Center for World University Rankings, they are currently the best university worldwide for Paleontology. The city itself also seems really nice and student-friendly. On top of that, the Aust Cliffs are very nearby and that seems like a really interesting location to hunt at (although very different to the Zandmotor!). All in all, I think, and hope, that I'm gonna have a really fun time there, and I couldn't be happier to start this new chapter in my life. And I am glad to now share this news with all my friends on The Fossil Forum, as you guys have definitely played a big role in not only maintaining, but also deepening, my passion for all these "dumb dead rocks", and it has clearly paid off. So a big thanks to all of you in this wonderful community! Love you all! Max
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I was wondering what the Texas law is for fossil hunting in a creek bed? I have been hunting in a creek and properties are fenced off above the creek. I have no interest in going onto the properties. I stay in the creek beds while I'm hunting. I just don't want to get myself in a pickle. I park near a bridge on the side of the road. This weekend I ran into a situation where the police came out to inspect why my car was there. Some of the people was understandably concerned since my car was there a couple of hours. Would it be a good idea to put a sign "fossil hunting" in my window to keep this type of thing from happening. I don't want my car to be towed while I'm hunting for fossil's. lol..
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Hi, I found this tooth in South Carolina earlier this summer and was wondering what it was, right now I’m thinking desori or bene(I’m hoping its a benedini, but I don’t know how realistic that is)
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With so many things closed down and all of us staying away from crowds, how are you spending your time? what are you working on you have been putting off? List any suggestions and add pictures if you like to help other members. Since this is world wide please share, this is our link for information. Hope this post helps others. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fsummary.html I just restrung 4 rods and reels and cleaned out my tackle box and Fly Rods, I hope to head to Tampa Bay tomorrow to fish, city beaches are closed down.
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So I am in the process of building a raft in order to reach those backwoods fossil hunting spots. I really don’t want to spend the money on a canoe/kayak that I will only use a few times. Is this a waste of my time and effort?
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Today I was able to get out to the outcrop along Rickard Hill in Schoharie, New York. I didn’t find a ton of interesting things because I was looking in a more crystalline layer of the Kalkberg formation that had less abundant fossils. I found a handful of nice orthid, spiriferid, and atrypid brachiopods and one fenestellid bryozoan. Next time I go I’m going to try and get into a different, more fossiliferous layer because the crystalline rock is hard to break and when it does it breaks randomly, often damaging the fossils.
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Last weekend I got a chance to do some fossil hunting in a creek in Greene, New York. I am a unsure if the exact formation I was in but I know it was upper Devonian. Brachiopods were quite abundant, especially spiriferid ones. I also found a couple nice bivalves and some bryozoans/corals.
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A month or so ago I found these while trout fishing in a creek in the lower Champlain valley. I have no idea what they are, so any info would be very helpful. They were from Ordovician rock that was pretty barren except for a few brachiopods.
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Hey everyone! I'm a 19 year old dude and I live in Indiana in the tri-state region. I'm very new to fossil hunting but it was my childhood dream to be a paleontologist for as long as I can remember. I like to explore in the woods and I find all kinds of fossilized sea creatures and coral all the time, but I don't exactly know what they are. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some answers and expand my knowledge a bit here. Personally, I am a young earth creationist, but I see the same fossil record as everyone else just with a different interpretation. It is definitely not my goal to get into any sort of scientific/theological argument with anyone here and just like everyone else I intend to keep my opinions to myself. I just love to talk and learn about fossils! Happy hunting everyone!
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I'm looking for some places to look for Triassic fossils in west texas. I've heard that there is some exposed along US-84 but I'm looking for a little more around there.
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Hello new TFF friends, I moved to the Bay Area of Northern California just under 3 years ago. I lived in Utah my entire life before that. I’ve done lots of rural wandering in Utah, and the beautiful geology there led me to start getting interested in rockhounding. Then work and life got in the way and I haven’t done anything for about 9 years. And now I’m in California and have twin 8 year olds and would like to introduce them to fossil hunting since one of the twins really loves dinosaurs. Obviously we don’t need to find dinosaur bones, or anything vertebrate for that matter, but I’m wondering if you can help us find a few sites that would be appropriate for a virgin fossil hunter like me. I found the TFF site via Google, and like the info in the Fossils for Kids section, but it looks like those posts are from 2010 so I’m wondering if they’re still valid, in terms of land access. Can anyone confirm or suggest a few sites? One other note: I also have a special-needs teenager with limited mobility, so I’m looking for sites that don’t require a hike to get to. The easiest of the easy. Thanks very much in advance for your help!
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Hello to everyone! With this post I would like to invite anyone who would like a group travel to Morocco exclusively for fossil hunting in the southern part of the country after the town of Zagora. My ideal period would be between October and November and then again middle December to Christmas. I am thinking for about 7 days. Two days would be wasted going back and forth to the locations. If there is a lot of interest for this, it would be better to create group of 4 so as to be more comfortable in the car. Important things to be taken into account : 1) The law for fossil export of Morocco is vague. Although it prohibits the export, specifically for scientifically important spiecements, it is not enforced. There are two threads in the forum that discuss this matter. 2) Chisels hammers etc must be bought locally and probably abandoned in the country. I would never carry such stuff in a flight. 3) Book flight with one hand luggage and return flight with more luggage. I guess this is apparent. 4) Passport is mandatory but no visa needed at least for EU citizens. 5) Two airports are major: Marakesh Menara and Rabat. I consider them meeting point. The optimal would be to get another flight from those airports to Zagora, but sometimes the later doesn't have flights. The road to Sahara is tiring so any group must have at least two people with driving licence. 6) Renting a car usually costs 50 bucks a day. We may also consider renting atv for small distance. 7) Thorough organisation of this endeavour. People will come from far away and we should prepare everything to guarantee everything is perfect and everyone's needs will be fulfilled. I hope I will find here people with such interest. Looking forward to hearing from anyone interested. Regards, Dimitris.
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Hey Fossil Community! Finally stopped being lazy and joined The Forum. Long time follower, fossil hunter, collector, and advocate to grow the paleontological community. Looking forward to contributing on the forum, networking with you great people, and possibly getting some digs together! I actively support and go on digs with PaleoProspectors, collect and network with many people in the fossil community, and am part of the growing fossil community on Instagram. Feel free to reach out!
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Can anyone confirm if it is fine to use the hammer end of my Estwing Geological pick for striking a small cold chisel when fossil hunting - or is it just for striking rocks/ It actually stipulates that the pick end is for prying only (which is fine) but the that hammer end is only for wooden stakes! Is this an overkill by Estwing to manage their H&S liability or is it common knowledge that you canuse the hammer on cold chisels? Any advice gratefully appreciated! Cheers - Rick
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Good Places to Fossil Hunt While in North Carolina?
Megalodoodle posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Anybody know any spots in North Carolina to fossil hunt? If no one is willing to share their secrets can you at least tell me what to look for? -
There Are Millions of Fossils in Kansas. Here's How You Can Find One Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020, by Kansas News Service, Kansas Public Radio https://kansaspublicradio.org/kpr-news/there-are-millions-fossils-kansas-heres-how-you-can-find-one Digital Atlas of Ancient Life, Rod Spears Education Apps on Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.aleros.digitalatlasancientlife&hl=en Oceans of Kansas Paleontology http://oceansofkansas.com/ Yours, Paul H.
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Over April break I will be traveling to Horseshoe Bend in northern Arkansas for a week. I am hoping to get the opportunity to do some fossil hunting while I’m there and I’m wondering if anybody knows of any fossil hunting localities in northern Arkansas that they would be kind enough to share with me.
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Hello all! I live in southeastern North Carolina (on the coast, between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach). I'm newly come to the "rock bug," but I've got it bad In our area there are lots of sharks teeth and other miocene and pliocene fossils and we are only about 2.5 hours from the famous Aurora (where we made our maiden voyage last month and had a splendid time despite the currently "reduced" offerings). That said, despite our state's wonderful geologic and fossil diversity (from Ediacaran trace fossils near Charlotte to massive megalodon teeth), it is sadly lacking in the one group of critters I most love-- Trilobites! Trilobites have been found in all five states bordering us -- Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, but to the best of my knowledge, NC remains free from trilobite finds. My purpose in joining the forum is twofold- 1. I am new to trilo hunting and will be seeking out advice on best practices, locations to hunt around the U.S. (as the closest trilobite sites are all 7+ hours out!), and prep techniques. We are planning a trip to New York (Penn Dixie and 18 Mile, plus maybe another spot or two) for our anniversary this May and will be looking for some advice about gear, sites, and dos and don'ts. 2. I am very interested in ways that people research and find exposures and potential sites, as I want to try exploring various sites in NC to find our elusive trilobites. My geology isn't great, but from what I understand, there is every reason to think that, as in South Carolina, the Carolina slate, though not highly fossiliferous, should have preserved trilos SOMEWHERE in the huge swath of NC it cuts through. If not there, there are other options. Thankfully, I enjoy time in nature and would be thrilled with finds that are not Trilobites too, so I will not mind striking out over and over before I hit gold Where this site comes in is my need for practical advice about how to do the shorts of research likely to yield good results. My secondary fossil interests are many. Right now, I'm focused on trying to find some horse teeth on the beach here, as I see people posting them on my beach's FB group at least once a week (usually asking "what's this?" O.o). I love finding any fossils on the beach, though I have to admit I'm not much of a shell aficionado. I have pliocene shell fossils in my yard the way normal people have rocks. I'm coming to appreciate them a bit more, but I can't quite see myself become a Bivalve nut anytime soon. My husband is a big dinosaur nut and we are eager to explore some of the Cape Fear River Cretaceous exposures in the hopes of a tyrannosaurid or hadrosaurid tooth. Those are dream finds (along with my NC trilo...), but people do it from time to time and I want to be one of those people. Other local bucket listers include a mammoth tooth, a meg over 3", and an NC Ediacaran trace fossil of some persuasion Bucket list collecting trips: -trilobite hunting at U Dig and other spots in Utah -trilobite hunting in Ohio -Beechers trilobite bed trip -Dinosaur hunting in Utah and Montana -Trilobite hunting in Morocco Thanks for reading! Philip
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Greetings!!! I'm planning a trip to New Mexico this summer. I would welcome any information besides the basic tourist stuff. I'll be in the northern Farmington area for a week. Can't wait!!! Thanks in advance for any insight. Bruce (WATERLINE)
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Hi all! I am planning on taking my 3rd fossil collecting trip to Florida next week. I had an amazing time in previous trips and am planning one that will be a bit longer! I plan on collecting in Gainesville at Hogtown Creek (my first time) and the Peace River, where I will be kayaking and camping a good stretch of it over the course of 2 or 3 days. I have my own gear and kayak, but will reach out to canoe outpost for their services in the drop off up river. It is 5 degrees in Chicago today and i am excitedly spending my week over-planning the trip. I have a few questions I’d love some feedback on from this who are more familiar with the area. For 2-3 days where would you recommend to launch the kayak at on the Peace River? And are camp spots easy to find along the way? I’ve floated between the Gardner and Brownsville boat ramps before, but looking to extend that type of trip, i really enjoyed it. What other areas should I look to collect around Gainesville? Are there any other rivers I should look into? My timeline is flexible I’ve read a bit into the Suwannee River, is that worth a stop? And any advice on prospecting or collecting there? Also, where is your top-secret spot where I can find the mammoth teeth and 5’’+ megs? (Feel free to pm this info ) If anyone is interested in joining me (tentatively Jan 25-29), I would love to connect and collect together! Below are pics where I camped at a couple years back (Brownsville) and some of my finds in the area.
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