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Hello everyone! Like most Europe, here in Bulgaria the winter is also very warm. Today we had 16C with totally clrear sky, so I decided to go hunting on a placed I was gathering info. 150Km from Sofia to the North, is the village of Belotintsi. There is a small Gorge formed by a creek "Nechinska bara" and the outcrops are part of Jurassic of Bulgaria. My source was the National history museum of Sofia and some publications of professors found online. The initial goal was to observe mostly the area as I was little tired for climbing and not properly prepared in terms of equipment. The whole area around (Border with Serbia, Stara Planina Mts, Golo Burdo Mt close to Sofia) were the bottom of Tethys sea. Here is a general aspect of the locality. Next time I plan to go to the upper part of the formation (Oxfordian). Pictures numbered from 1 to 4 show some spiecements on the field. The rocks are rich in CaCO3 as they highly react with vinegar. The stones are easily separated with very light blows. Picture number 1, I think I forgot it there Pictures Sa-Sd: Macrocephalites versus or gracilis I think. Se: This big fella, sadly found in pieces. I believe it is a different spieces to Macrocephalites. Probably it was detached from a formation above. Sf-Sg: Some fragments Sh-Si: I gathered these only to try testing with preparation process. As a novice, I do not want to ruin something nice that was preserved for million of years due to lack of experience. Hope you like the pictures. None of the fossils are museum quality; nevertheless I really enjoyed the day. Wish to everyone happy and fruitful hunting trips! Regards, Dimitris.

Hello to all. Some photos from a recent trip.

Hi everyone! Last week we went on a weekend trip with our fossil club the BVP to go on a fossil hunt to the jurassic clay cliffs "Falaises de Vaches Noires" between Houlgate & Villers-Sur-Mer in Normandy, France. https://www.paleontica.org/locations/fossil/68 The famous cliffs of Vaches Noires date back to the Jurassic period, and span both the Callovian & Oxfordian stages (166 - 157 mya) and the Cretaceous period spanning the Cenomanian (100 - 94 mya). Back in the jurassic this area was a rich marine environment and fossils that can be found here are many species of bivalves (like Gryphaea, Lopha & Myophorella), ammonites, gastropods, belemnites, brachiopods, crinoïds, sponges and other invertebrates. The cliffs are also known for marine reptile material and even dinosaur material, though these finds are rather rare but you'll see some nice pieces in the museum pics later. We arrived Thursday afternoon (november 3th) and stayed to Sunday (november 6th). We were very happy to join this trip organized by our club since it is probably the last year that fossil searching is allowed in this amazing location. We were with around 27 people I believe and met each morning at the entrance of the beach at Houlgate. We searched the cliffs for 2 days and went to the local museum "paleospace" on sunday. The weather was amazing for the 2 days of searching, it was even sunny the first day! The first few hours we mainly searched among the rocks on the beach which were littered with large Gryphaea fossils and other bivalves like Lopha gregarea. After our lunch break we moved on to search more near the clay to find smaller fossils. On our second day we again searched the clay, went through some interesting places in the sand which were littered with oysters, gastropods and had some ammonite and crinoïd fossils and we ended the day at the cenomanian rocks in search for some fossil urchins. The Cenomanian rocks on the beach A piece a chalcedony A partial ammonite Me very happy with my first complete ammonite, which I found next to me while having lunch One of the mystery fossils which nobody could really determine (we brought it home along another we found) The tubes seem to be pyritised. I believe it to be some kind of Echinoderm and someone suggested it might be a Crinoïd with a parasite on it. But eventually our top finding (and the best of the entire trip) was spotted by my girlfriend Elise and is this gorgeous fish (probably Lepidotes sp.)

As a later summer vacation we decided to do a road trip - Tour de France. France having many interesting destinations and things to do and collecting fossils would be one of them. As we usually don’t plan our trips beyond a few days ahead also the fossil locations were decided on the road. But when reading about Carniol it became clear it was one we had to include. Other non fossil highlights of the trip were Bordeaux, the Pyrenees, Toulouse (great museum of natural history), Lyon and of course Pont du Gard. When finding out about Carniol I did some further reading on how to get there. Apparently the French drive on the very bad (not true) roads to get there like madman (true) at 90 km/h (sometimes true), the cliffs and canyons are very scary (not after the Pyrenees) and parking was also going to be a challenge (it was easy). Carniol is a tiny village and probably the fossil sites are it’s main tourist attraction although calling Carniol touristic is probably very far from reality. Near the village there are two places where the fossil rich clay is exposed and can be easily reached from the road (50-100m walk). The grey clay can be recognised from a distance so it didn’t take us long to get at the site (we only visited the western one but they are supposed to be similar). We were lucky that there was heavy rain in the days before our visit as this exposes the fossils. The downside is that the clay is very sticky and heavy and it forms a plateau under your shoes. As mentioned before the fossils are washed out of the clay and you just need to pick them up. Unfortunately larger fossils are poorly conserved and some nice pieces crumbled after picking them up. But the small fossils are many and diverse. We found lots of what we recognised like Ammonites including heteromorphs, belemnites, gastropods and bivalves like this. As I read that taking some of the clay for washing was of interest (we didn’t prepare for this) we filled an empty 5 liter water container with clay. As we had an appointment for dinner in Lyon and we were satisfied with our finds we left after about two hours. But the rest of the vacation I kept thinking about starting to wash and sort our finds. Back home it became obvious we had some nice finds even before finishing sorting everything. A big tooth my partner picked up but she didn’t recognise as such and she didn’t tell me about (Protosphyraena with a small?). From the clay we brought home, I found a jaw fragment (identified on Reddit as Saurian). Still a lot of material to go through as for now I am just grouping the finds. In due time I hope to get some help with further identification of everything although I will give it a try myself with the information already available here and on other sites.

Hi everyone, Last week after getting lots of recommendations from people I spend a couple of days at Cap Blanc Nez in France to look for some fossils. And while it wasn't to most bountyfull hunt I did have a lot of fun and I was very pleased with the little finds that I managed to do. We had very nice weather, it was sunny and the temperature was just perfect for fossil hunting, and the cliffs and beach (and landscape overall) were absolutely stunning. The fossils in Cap Blanc Nez date back to the Cretaceous and there are deposits from the Turonian, Cenomanian & Albian. I spent a lot of time searching in the clay deposits which lay on the beach. Besides fossils we also found some washed up marine life: A large jellyfish (Rhizostoma sp.) A washed up Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) A washed up Small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) We also payed a little visit to the beach at Wissant although we didn't went there to search for fossils but to visit an old shipwreck

Hello, I am traveling to the Waco and Austin Texas areas and was wondering if there are any easy to get to sites for echinoids and ammonites? Thanks, Dan

Looking for others in the area to get out in the field with. Also looking if there are groups or clubs in the area. We find fossils local to the Grand Lake NE Oklahoma area but want to learn more. Do not know anyone in this area and am looking to meet others. Also looking for areas to hunt.