Search the Community

Hi everyone! Last saturday we went on a fossil hunting trip with the BVP to Hotton in the Belgian Ardennes. https://www.paleontica.org/locations/fossil/667 There were 2 different locations planned for the day, the first was the "Carrière de Marenne" quarry in Hotton were we spent most of the day. It was my first time at this location, so I didn't have very high expectations but we were very pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of the finds which made for a very productive and succesfull trip! Unfortunately like so often I forgot to make pictures inside the quarry... So it will mainly be a report of the finds rather than the excavation. The age of the layers date back to the Givetian stage of the middle Devonian which lasted from 388 million years ago to 383 million years ago. There were 3 spots inside the quarry were we searched for fossils. We started on the east side of the quarry where we found some weathered corals, a bivalve and some bryozoans. One of our friends was very lucky when they found a fragment of Placoderm bone.. the 2nd spot we searched was still on the east side of the Quarry but this time near the big rock outcrop which devides the quarry in two pieces. Here we all hit gold as this was a large area where it was full with weathered fossils in great condition ready to be picked up! No need for hammers here, just grabbing which was laying on the ground as it was littered with corals en brachiopods. We almost collected a bucket full from this area alone. The 3rd spot was the west side of the quarry which was divided in multiple levels. I mainly searched in a large rock pile with some others as it seems these were the remains of an ancient coral bank. We found many large corals here like Hexagonaria and Favosites as well as some nice mineral specimens to much delight of my girlfriend. Someone did do the find of the day here when he found 2 extremely large Stringocephalus brachiopods. I also went with Tom, our group leader to prospect the rest of the quarry but beside some corals I didn't find much more things of interest. At the end of the trip we were given some nice mineral specimens by Tom who found some on the lowest level of the quarry which we didn't visit ourselves. Here the only photo I made inside the quarry, were my girlfriend was building a rock fortress. (Everyone was on a one hour break due to the early summer heat) And here are our finds from inside the quarry: A large Hexagonaria sp. coral which we managed the haul home, one of the perks when you bring a wheelbarrow to a quarry! Another nice Hexagonaria sp. coral And our 3rd large piece of Hexagonaria sp. coral One of the Favosites sp. corals we brought home. Another Favosites coral An our chuncky Favosites coral A weathered Hexagonaria coral. A bivalve we found early at the beginning of the search.

After a pretty succesfull hunt in Germany last week i’m now in Belgium for a week with my kids. Due to Covid this trip was poorly planned. We were basically happy to find accomodation at last notice and have a nice stream nearby for a swim. Arriving here i noticed a place called Barvaux which sounded familiar. Yesterday i suddenly realised it is a well know site for fossils from the Carboniferus. So without any tools ( all left at home ) we still managed to find these Sperifer’s. I’ll probably check the site again later this week for better ones....

Last year Kevin H. gave me some information about a good location for fossils near Barvaux (Thanks @Kevin H. ) Its a construction site where you can find many devonian fossils. The most common fossils are brachiopods but you can also find corals and gastropods ! Too bad that it seems that they not work there anymore ... despite of that you can still find many brachiopods. Firstly some pictures of the site: And there they are ! Its a pity that they are often damaged ! I spent there about 3 hours and found more than 300 brachiopods ! I think more or less all are Cyrtospirifer verneuili ... And here are the biggest ones: The biggest one is about 8 cm long and very massive. Its difficult to find such big ones in a good condition ! This one is a very nice one becuase of the good preservation. Its about 4.5 cm long. Some more brachiopods from other angles: + These three brachiopods look a bit different ... can somebody determine them? I found also some brachiopods where you can see the spiral shaped lophophores ("skeleton") of them... I can post brachiopods the whole day But I also found some corals

I want to share my fossils from a one week tour with you. I was in Cadzand (Netherlands), in Hoevenen (Antwerpen), in Barvaux and also in Eckelsheim (Germany). The most time i was on the beaches in Cadzand. Its just wonderful there and i dont spend my whole time to look for fossils On the beaches near Cadzand i didnt found that much as last year, but i think its still a nice haul. I found many bivalves, some fish vertebra, Gastropods, Balanus sp. and also many bones .... Bivalves: They are very common on some beaches, so i collect only the nicest ones: Glycymeris obovata: Megacardita (Venericor) planicosta: I found also some Pecten (Plural of Pecte ?) Balanus sp.: This fossil is also very common in Cadzand. So here are the best two: Trivia sp. On of my personal favourites are the Trivia sp. Too bad that they are very rare there .... This are all: Detailed: