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BVP Fieldtrip to Solnhofen Limestone (Jurassic of Germany) + Museum visit
ziggycardon posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hi Everyone! A couple of days ago I returned from a fieldtrip to the Solnhofen region in Germany. The trip was organized by my fossilclub the BVP as well as my friend and professional paleontologist Jonathan Wallaard who led the trip. During our 4 day stay we visited 3 different quarries and the Burgermeister-Müller-Museum in Solnhofen. The Solnhofen Limestone is probably one of the most famous Konservat-Lagerstätte in the World. Dating back to the late Jurassic, Tithonian around 152 - 150 million years ago. During this time this area was a tropical archipelago in the Tethys Sea with many small islands and shallow lagoons. Due to its exceptional preservation we have an extensive record of the marine fauna as well a some knowledge of terrestrial species which inhabited the islands (which should have been located around 30 km from the mainland if I heard correctly from one of the quarry owners.) These seas were home to multiple species of ammonites, belemnites and squids; crinoïds like the free-floating Saccocoma; Echinoïds and Starfish; Horseshoe crabs, lobsters, crabs and schrimps; as well as sponges, corals, jellyfish, bivalves, gastropods and brachiopods (which are relatively rare finds.) But also a large diversity of bony fish (some of which could reach multiple meters in length), Hybodont sharks, Chimaera's as well as marine reptiles like the Ichthyosaur "Aegirosaurus", marine crocodiles, turtles and Pleurosaurus. The islands were home to Cycads and Araucariaceae trees, but also by many insects like dragonflies and beetles, reptiles like Sphenodonts and Squamates. Though the most famous of its inhabitants must have been the pterosaurs like Pterodactylus and Rhamphorhynchus as well as some dinosaurs like Compsognathus, Juravenator, Sciurumimus, Archaeopteryx and Alcmonavis. Our first day of digging was on friday (may 19th) at the BGM hobbysteinbruch in Solnhofen which is part of the Mörnsheim Formation (150,8 - 150 mya). https://www.solnhofen-fossilienatlas.de/siteinfo.php?section=sites&siteid=75&sitename=Solnhofen Hobbybruch The main fossils that could be found in this quarry were ammonites, aptychi, coprolites as well as fish. Our group of around 30 people assembled at the quarry at 10 o'clock and after a few words from the quarry owner and Jonathan we set of to dig. An overview of the quarry before we started digging. A couple of minutes later... Jonathan pointed me and my good friend Tom to a good place to dig and so we started cleaning debri so we could start digging. Since the Plattenkalk is layered it is always a good stategy to find some plateaus where so can hack away chunks which you can later split (which I suppose most of you already know). Pic of my hole in which I was working Unfortunately it turns out that the spot I picked must have been a public toilet as pretty much everything I found the first half of the day where coprolites, which turned into a running joke that day I was lucky enough to find a fish early one, though still entirely entombed in the rock but Jonathan warned us to look for bones into the cracked stones and that's how I managed to find it. Will require quite some prep work though. Later that day I started finding multiple Aptychi, Ammonites as well as a rare Bivalve. A plate with 3 ammonites (probably Neochetoceras steraspis) An ammonite with the Aptychus still in place which was found by one of the other members. Our club founder Luc, found this large piece of decorative slab which almost looked like it is petrified wooden dining table. Not a fossil but still cool as heck. And Tinneke managed to find a lovely fish jaw which was excavated by the help of Jonathan. While I didn't take pictures of the following, quite some members found fossil fish (some around 40 cm in lenght) and crustaceans like schrimp.- 30 replies
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Hi all, I was playing with my poop a while back, as one does, and discovered a hidden treasure. I prepped out what I think is a nice little floating crinoid. It looks beefier than the Saccocoma in my collection. Can anyone verify that is what this is? Thanks a bunch!
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Last weekend I used my free time to visit two locations in the area of Solnhofen. Solnhofen is quite a famous fossil location, so many of you will probably know it. During the Late Jurassic, this area was an archipelago at the edge of the Tethys Sea and it preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms. The most famous fossil from there is the Archaeopteryx. At the beginning I was very unsure if it really make sense to visit that location, because I often heard bad things like that its very hard to find something there . And I have to say that it was indeed very hard to find something but nonetheless I found a few fossils and it was much fun. I was firstly for about 3 hours in the visitor quarry Blumenberg. Here is the quarry: It makes sense to bring a shovel with you because you firstly have to put away all the debris before you can extract larger plates. The most common fossil there is the crinoid Saccocoma. Here are some examples: (about 2 cm big) Another very common fossil are coprolites from fishes/ammonites. They are called Lumbricaria: (3-4 cm long)
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- ammonites
- coprolites
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Saccocoma tenella is the most common macrofossil of the Solnhofen Limestone. Taxonomy from Hess & Etter 2011. Reconstruction from Milson 1994, p. 123: References; Milsom, C. (1994) Saccocoma: a benthic crinoid from the Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone, Germany. Palaeontology, 37, 1, 121–129. H. Hess & W. Etter (2011): Life and death of Saccocoma tenella (GOLDFUSS). Swiss Journal of Geosciences 104(S1) · December 2011
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I picked up an interesting plate from the Solnhofen Plattenkalk. Can anyone identify the interesting little creature above the floating crinoid? That is a Saccocoma, correct? Thanks for your help!
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- floating crinoid
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From the album: Invertebrates
Saccocoma tenella GOLDFUSS, 1831 Upper Jurassic Tithonian Solnhofen Germany A floating crinoid