I follow the Moskva...

[RuMert]

...Down to Gorky( Brateyevsky) park...

 

Hi all! 

It is time to introduce you to the famous Panderi zone of the Moscow fossils. It is named after Dorsoplanites panderi ammonite (middle Volgian/Tithonian, Upper Jurassic), which in turn got its name from Heinz Christian Pander. It consists of numerous cast iron-like (black, heavy, solid but fragile) separate concretions containing mostly ammonites and bivalves. The fossils from the Panderi layer are grim, black, rough and depressive (in line with this winter).The zone is present throughout Moscow but becomes most accessible in the south-east. There are at least 5 spots along the river where you can collect them.

 

 

 

 

[RuMert]

We start in Kolomenskoye, a former tsars' residence, now a popular park. As we are having an unusually warm winter, there's neither snow, nor green vegetation. It's humid, cold and dark, there are not many people is the park. To get to the river we go down the slope, using an old medieval road.

[RuMert]

Here's the embankment. I forgot to tell you the fossils can only be collected in winter, when the water level is substantially dropped (same as with the frozen fossils topic). Everything below the reddish bike lane should be underwater in summer. Those big rocks are not from the fossil layer. They were brought here for river and park development

[RuMert]

This is what became of the famous "ammonite creek", where you could dig up some quality ammonites a few years ago. Now everything is covered with concrete.

All that remains is to collect concretions along the waterfront. The site's productivity is effectively cut off

[RuMert]

In water you find mostly belemnites, then ammonite fragments and rarely more or less complete ones. Note that everything is scarce, fragmented and small.

 

[RuMert]

We go downstream to the railway bridge, which is pretty productive by the Panderi zone (low) standards

 

This is a Pavlovia pavlovi ammonite, which is no less numerous than Dorsoplanites panderi itself.

 

[RuMert]

There are rare imprints and big ammonite fragments by which you could imagine the ammonites reached 30-40 cm in diameter. Unfortunately the odds to find a complete one are low: the center is usually not preserved, the ammos are fragile and most importantly you can no longer dig them up as the base of the bridge is covered with concrete and wire

 

 By the way if you ever get there, dont come too close to the bridge, its a restricted area.

[RuMert]

We continue our way downstream past a beaver dam (yes, there are a lot of  beavers in the Moskva river) to a small "beach" (also accessible only in winter). Here we can scoop underwater or dig the ground as some fossil hunters do. They usually look not even for Panderi fossils, but for a worse analogue of Bronnitsy Oxfordian (squished and such)

[RuMert]

Here (and to the less extent, elsewhere along the river) you can find some Pleistocene stuff like horse bones.

[RuMert]

Passing by Brateyevsky park we come to a road bridge where you can also find some (not much) Panderi fossils.

[RuMert]

And our final destination lies in Kapotnya (opposite river bank), which is slightly more productive. Here you can also try to dig up the layer but according to the people who tried doing so, it's hard and not too rewarding

[RuMert]

In a nutshell the best thing to do is spotting ammonites washed out during summer and collecting concretions in hope of finding fossils inside. Here's the result of the trip - a load of fossils and concretions. The modern shells are collected for comparison.

 

By the way, it's a Panderi ammo in the middle (left and right are Pavlovias)

[RuMert]

Thanks for reading!

[Darktooth]

Very interesting! Thank-you for sharing this information.

[aek]

Nice! Thanks for the tour.

[FossilDAWG]

Thanks for bringing us along!  I really like the ammonites!

I hate it when fossil sites are lost to "site improvements" like concrete, riprap, stonework, etc.  That river doesn't really look like something I would want to swim in, but I wonder if you could find more by snorkeling (in a wet suit of course).

 

Don

[Fossildude19]

Great report, and fossils!   

Thanks for sharing this with us!  

[FossilNerd]

Well done with your report! Learning about fossils from around the globe is very interesting. Thanks for showing us a side of the world that many of us don’t get to see very often! 

[goatinformationist]

Fine and knowledgeable writing skill, colorful maps, and loads of quality specimen pictures, with notes. I think that we should spend more time with you. 

[Jeffrey P]

Excellent interesting report. Thank you for sharing Moscows hidden fossil treasures. Always interesting to read about fossils from far away places. Looks like you've been able to locate some very interesting sites. Congratulations.

[lcordova]

Thanks for the tour!

[belemniten]

I always enjoy reading your reports! You got some nice finds too. Congrats!

[Manticocerasman]

Incredible to see such a fossiliferous location in a cityscape.

Great report.

Thx for sharing

[Ludwigia]

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge in this way. Did you find anything with your fish net?

[Monica]

I really enjoy reading your reports - they're very informative, and it's so cool to see pictures of the city as well as the fossils!  Thanks for taking us along on your hunts