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Cretaceous of Bulgaria


Dimitris

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Hello everyone!

Been some time away from hunting as business consumes now most of my free time.

Anyway, around May, I stopped at a small river that I saw while returning from another hunt.

I found some stuff including a big Inoceramus (Thx @caterpillar for helping with ID)

The place look promising but I could not find further publication or information about that.

Searching for geologic maps, I found this site:

http://www.geokniga.org/maps

and thanks to this and the now known age of Inoceramus, I managed to pin point on map the formation.

I searched only within the red area marked.

The formation is called Sumer formation (U pronounced as Sumerian, not summer) and its age is Middle Aptian to Albian.

On the site, there is another formation of Neogene age, hardly accesible for most of its part.

viber_image_2020-07-16_10-19-10.thumb.jpg.7179dbf53d77f13957ed941c53fc4d45.jpg

 

The whole place is absolutely beautiful, you can see pelicans, various species of butterflies and some trouts if you observe in the water.

The formation is very big and can be divided in 4 parts.

  • 1st and biggest part is NE of the highway. This part is harder to access as you need to cross the river from the point where it is much deeper, and as it seems on this picture, there is no place where you can prospect.
  • 2nd part is a small strip on the shore of the river and the rest of the formation is under the water. You can see it here. On this point I found the big Inoceramus.
  • 3rd part, you need to walk through the shallow point of the river and you end up again in a small shore with lenght 80-100m.
  • 4th part are the rest areas marked on the map as smK, either not accesible without hiking, or within private properties or just not yet seen by me.

IMG_20200718_094642.thumb.jpg.1fbf94fcad80843450c3a8d2524df5fd.jpgIMG_20200718_094636.thumb.jpg.61c61cf789c02a09f3008bc3eacc2812.jpg

 

So far, I have visited this formation 3 times.

My finds:

Inoceramus as whole, partial imprints and fragments of shell.

Ammonites, yet not identified as there is not a single piece of info for this place.

Part of heteromorph ammonite, sadly poorly preserved to collect.

 

Here is the heteromorph, or at least parts of it and the other one I have no idea of spieces.

heter.jpg.9fae14f35fb94504be8dbcc968368e00.thumb.jpg.5a172a608b83d6399064ea5a56a5d985.jpgammo2.jpg.c94711fefeac9c54738f38c2c792d6df.jpg.25d5cd1010d4527272abaf4c69bf383b.jpg

 

Another unidentified ammo here and next one

 

IMG_7908.thumb.JPG.584211ef2c8bfd740844525784602338.JPG

IMG_7910.thumb.JPG.1076621b8dacd1c819bfb0f6517591fd.JPG

And here is another (?) Inoceramus I think.

IMG_7911.thumb.JPG.f085e61b0e3a5c0a980ce52a67b0aa8c.JPG

 

The formation has a satisfying yield of fossils, howver most of them are poorly preservated. The sediments are very loose and extremely fragile.

Moreover, all fossils from this location are hard to photograph, I guess not enough contrast.

The last pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 750D, with settings for micro inside a photobox, however I found it very difficult to properly show the fossils. Made some corrections with photoshop, yet not enough.

 

Time permitting, I will soon visit another place 30Kms SE hoping to find some heteromorps. Again spotted while driving, 

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1386022,23.702122,3a,75y,277.03h,90.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6awrmLsDC72sWJHf8NfdyQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Map says Aptian-Albian, Campanian-Maastrichtian

 

Hope you enjoy, any tips for the camera would be appreciated!

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Thanks for the trip report, Dimitris, my friend. :)

Nice photos.

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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9 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Thanks for the trip report, Dimitris, my friend. :)

Nice photos.

Thx Adam! No beautiful finds though, only of scientific value :heartylaugh:

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Very cool!

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“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Oh my gosh! Fossils on a beautiful trout stream.  I would be torn between the two.... Thanks for the pictures.

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6 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

Looks like a good reason to buy a canoe or a kayak.

 

Don

How many time I have thought this recently!

We have a river named Iskar that passes from all these locations of interest.

But I cannot load it in my car.. 

3f7d3b68-864c-4577-87e1-c2b3c9289d5e_120

 

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Maybe a roof rack?  Or an inflatable canoe or kayak?  I have not tried the inflatable boats but as long as you don't have to deal with rapids they might suffice.

 

Don

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Nice stuff, Dimitris!  The two little ammonites on matrix look good to me! :dinothumb:

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  • 2 years later...

Hi! Please tell me, how close is that to Mezdra? Can you give me a Google map reference?

I drove out from Sofia to the Svoge region yesterday, and had a look at the area from Gara Lakatnik and the Peshtera restaurant up to the village of Milanovo. I've read that there are fossiliferous seams there but I had no idea where or how to find them.

I read that "The geomorphological phenomena, due to which the area around Lakatnik station has been declared a natural landmark, are much more contrasting here. In this part there is a complete section of the Triassic system with rich fossil deposits and continuous discovery, allowing a variety of research and rich material for the purposes of teaching geology."

Also "The 130 m thick Opletna member is a cyclic alternation of allochemic limestones, micritic limestones and micritic dolomites. The mussel Costatoria costata (Zenker) and the ammonite Beneckeia tenuis (Seebach) are found in the lower part of this member, and in the upper part of the profile there are layers with Plagiostoma radiatum (Goldfuss). It reveals itself well on the Sofia-Mezdra road near the Zhitolyub karst spring."

While I was there yesterday I had no idea where to find the right strata. Do you have any experience of this place?

Further up the road to Mezdra I'm told that Lyutibrod has "extremely diverse sedimentary rocks - sandy limestones, marls, calcareous sandstones, siltstones and mixed rocks, rich in fossils - colonial and single corals, orbitolins, mussels, snails, ammonites, belemnites, brachiopods, sea urchins and bryozoans". I hope to go there soon, but I will probably fail to find the right strata again!

 

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22 hours ago, Great Boo said:

Hi! Please tell me, how close is that to Mezdra? Can you give me a Google map reference?

 

Yes, sure. Here is the entrance to the place.

The river cuts over the formation. All the dark grey clays belong to the same group.

You will find numerous small heteromorphic ammonites and small inoceramus, all of them horribly preserved.

I found the place accidentally and the first time I collected a well preserved (the only one) inoceramus, around 30cm.

I have explored only the Southwest side of the formation (I consider the graveyard the centre). The Northwest passes opposite the village of Kravoder.

Sumerska fm is not considered a good one, so I would say it is quite waste of time.

 

Quote

I drove out from Sofia to the Svoge region yesterday, and had a look at the area from Gara Lakatnik and the Peshtera restaurant up to the village of Milanovo. I've read that there are fossiliferous seams there but I had no idea where or how to find them.

I read that "The geomorphological phenomena, due to which the area around Lakatnik station has been declared a natural landmark, are much more contrasting here. In this part there is a complete section of the Triassic system with rich fossil deposits and continuous discovery, allowing a variety of research and rich material for the purposes of teaching geology."

I am not very familiar with this area since I have visited only once with my girlfriend.

I can tell you that:

Dark red limestone: Lower Triassic. Guarantee you will find nothing since during this period the area was a dessert.

Grey/blue limestone shall be Triassic (Middle to Late) or Jurassic. My neighbour is specialized in this period - its long time we say let's go but in the end of the day we end up somewhere else.

 

Quote


Also "The 130 m thick Opletna member is a cyclic alternation of allochemic limestones, micritic limestones and micritic dolomites. The mussel Costatoria costata (Zenker) and the ammonite Beneckeia tenuis (Seebach) are found in the lower part of this member, and in the upper part of the profile there are layers with Plagiostoma radiatum (Goldfuss). It reveals itself well on the Sofia-Mezdra road near the Zhitolyub karst spring."

That's exactly right next to the restaurant. Stopped a little before eating, didn't notice something interesting.

Took the road to Milanovo, up to this place, and didn't find something.

I went until Lakatnik (the village) and did some off road since I was with the Jeep. Again nothing.

 

Quote

While I was there yesterday I had no idea where to find the right strata. Do you have any experience of this place?

Further up the road to Mezdra I'm told that Lyutibrod has "extremely diverse sedimentary rocks - sandy limestones, marls, calcareous sandstones, siltstones and mixed rocks, rich in fossils - colonial and single corals, orbitolins, mussels, snails, ammonites, belemnites, brachiopods, sea urchins and bryozoans". I hope to go there soon, but I will probably fail to find the right strata again!

 

I parked under the rail bridge and hiked on these rocks, exactly where I have set the street view.

NOTHING.

There was one echinocorys sp. on the site snimki.bg, however the site does not exist anymore. This is what led me to search there.

As per some locals, the site is over-collected.

Additionally, The quality of the hedgehogs is not so good compared to Byala. Yet, I wanted one from there since it is another place of K/T boundary.

 

Nevertheless, I found another K/T boundary in Greece.

 

All these publications you read are written 30-50 years ago. Some localities are not the same.

I will send you pm

 

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