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Hi all! Here's a brief report on Eganovo quarry, a well-known place among local public interested in fossils. It's basically a "summer site": fossiling there is associated with water and lots of mud, highly uncomfortable in cold seasons. The site is situated some 20 km southeast of Moscow. Late Jurassic. The quarry is an unusual place by itself with a strange otherworldly scenery.

Hi all! Answering @jpc's question about the site's accessibility in winter and if we actually dig under snow. Yes, we do! (something must be not right in the head). Today we tried the dig at -1C'. Had to make a pretty big hole too (the deepest I've seen there). No big teeth found, hopes for the micro-matrix.

Hi all! Here I describe how we sift for Late Jurassic fossils in Moscow Fili Park, in continuation of Fili Park evokes mixed feelings. In fact, now it is the main place for Jurassic fish and reptile teeth. Nowhere else in our Jurassic will you be able to say casually: "I'll go find some teeth", here it is possible. Even in Ulyanovsk, with all its skeletons and verts, teeth have to be searched for a very, very long time. For Muscovites, Fili Park is literally close at hand (for me, for example, it takes a little over half an hour to get there). In addition, Fili Park introduces hobbyists to all types of paleo-activities: excavation, sifting, preparation, stabilization, gluing, varnishing, water management, sorting out micro-matrix, etc. On the other hand, it's the most difficult site I have seen in our Jurassic and certainly not a place for a pleasant pastime. Cold, mud, mosquitoes, nettles, everything is flooded with water, everything crumbles and collapses, pouring water and mud on you, while you try to get out your boots gone knee-deep in mud. There are few holes, and digging another is complicated. The place is full of stones, branches and debris, and over the years everything has been so dug up and down that the likelihood of making your way through tons of dirt, debris and old dumps in vain is very high. Excavation and operation of a hole is not a matter of one day or even one person. Dozens of people dig and sift in one hole for a month, with the number of interesting finds combined counted on the fingers of one hand. This year's holes: Unlike Cretaceous sites, micro-matrix in Fili does not consist of teeth in any way. You will not find 60 teeth from a bucket of mud in any wash fraction. In addition, it contains an annoying amount of pseudo-fossils, including those similar to teeth: seeds, twigs, insects, modern shells, black phragmocons and serpula fragments, shiny pebbles, etc. In this regard, there are also objects like this: As far as I understand, these belong to modern insects, if not, please correct. With all this being said, the small size of the location is surprising: all the adventures of recent years have taken place on a small area of 50 by 20 m. I once witnessed guys complaining they could not find teeth by sifting mud. Naive folks! They did not realize the tooth layer was a meter UNDER the stream bed. And the latter is by the way the lowest point of the site. The nikitini zone begins with a thick layer of belemnite shell rock, reminiscent of a concrete lid. After getting through, the matrix becomes soft again, and the pink fulgens fossils get replaced by the black and white palette of nikitini layer. I would call large brachiopods of the genus Mosquella its marker. Instead of smooth kachpurite ammonites, ribbed epivirgatites begin to appear, and rare large (up to 40 cm) lomonossovellas become visible. Each trip for nikitini fossils takes about three hours to clear the old hole. That's why it is important not to postpone the excavation, but keep it within one day, arriving at dawn. Any hole crumbles constantly before the eyes, all the abomination from rubbish and glass to the walls of the fulgens zone slides right into the center of the hole and sinks to the very bottom. Do not try to reinforce the walls with branches and stones, or later you'll have to get all of this out of the target layer. Instead, try to divert as much water as possible from the excavation. See where the streams come from and cut new channels for them. Try not to splash on the walls and do not allow the scooped water to flow back into the hole. The walls collapse where the water flows. Do not make vertical walls, obtuse angles prevent the edges from collapsing. A typical pit in a pit, the smaller hole's edges are formed by the walls of the nikitini belemnite shell rock: For better understanding. Shovel, buckets, sieves, chair. The water has been drained out. The stream is to the right: First of all, in an old (any not freshly dug) hole, you'll have to scoop out several hundred liters of water (the procedure will have to be repeated several times a day). A regular bucket works best here. Unfortunately, the pumps cannot cope with the job. They are either submersible or designed for clean water, etc. Basically a weak surface fecal pump is needed, but there are none for sale. Last time, amateurs in ordinary rubber boots (lol) asked us how we had "drained the hole". With our own hands, getting there in waders up to the max At the second stage, you will need to scoop out all the dirt and debris, a medium-sized fishing scoop helps here (in my opinion, better than a shovel). It is useful when clearing a hole, quickly scooping out water and working with mud. "Awesome" Fili slurry, aka the matrix:

Hi all! In continuation of the previous reports. Less text, more pics Bits of scenery:

Hi all! This time I'll show you a very special site, located on the Volga river near the city of Rybinsk, 250 km north of Moscow. The site is famous for its huge Volgian ammonites, the biggest in our Jurassic (big Cretaceous ones are no surprise). The largest ammonites here reach 70 cm, they are inflated and surprisingly common. If you find an ammonite in concretion, it will most likely be big and whole (but often broken inside). The main outcrops are situated by the village of Glebovo, they occupy about 6 km of the shore. Glebovo: