My favourite trilobite site

[fifbrindacier]

Hi, today i went to my favourite trilobite site in my favourite mountains.

When i arrived that morning, i discovered under my feet a nice white sea of clouds, making the peaks looking like islands on a sugar sea.

 

The weather was bright and hot

 

Fossils were at the rendez-vous : corals and brachiopods, but also, for the first time, pyrite :

 

And, of course, trilobites

 

[Misha]

Wow, gorgeous location!

Those finds are great too, what kind of trilobites are those?

[fifbrindacier]

Thank you Misha, they are Phacops cf fecundus aff degener. This fauna hasn't been seriously studied, so, they are compared with hungarian trilos just by convention. When they'll be studied seriously, they probably will be given another name.

[BellamyBlake]

Absolutely gorgeous site! Would love to spend a day in those mountains!

[Kasia]

so many trilos in a single trip, well done, Sophie Beautiful spot, too

 

[Darktooth]

Nice finds, Sophie! I love the pics of the mountains. Absolutely beautiful!

[fifbrindacier]

21 minutes ago, BellamyBlake said:

Absolutely gorgeous site! Would love to spend a day in those mountains!

 

11 minutes ago, Kasia said:

so many trilos in a single trip, well done, Sophie Beautiful spot, too

 

 

4 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

Nice finds, Sophie! I love the pics of the mountains. Absolutely beautiful!

Thank you all, that's a very place i love very much, a mythic col world wide known by all the fans of cyclism, since its existence, the Tour de France pass by this place.

[Nautiloid]

Love that scenery!!

[Monica]

Stunning scenery AND fossils???  Sign me up!!! 

 

Thanks for the uplifting post, Sophie! 

[Praefectus]

Wow. Great finds and beautiful scenery. 

[fifbrindacier]

23 hours ago, Monica said:

Stunning scenery AND fossils???  Sign me up!!! 

 

Thanks for the uplifting post, Sophie! 

You're signed up whenever you have a chance to come here.

You're all welcome, thank you for your kind words.

[fifbrindacier]

On 26/07/2020 at 9:23 PM, Kasia said:

so many trilos in a single trip, well done, Sophie Beautiful spot, too

 

I love to go there, if only for the landscape. The trilos are always the same, i only once found a cephalon of Asteropygidae, but they are like the icing on the cake. The sweetie that catch your eye and brings the water of greed on your tongue.

[Emthegem]

Oh my the location is astonishing! I would do almost anything to someday visit - let alone fossil hunt in a place like that wow 

[fifbrindacier]

On 28/07/2020 at 7:48 AM, Emthegem said:

Oh my the location is astonishing! I would do almost anything to someday visit - let alone fossil hunt in a place like that wow 

You're also welcome.

[fifbrindacier]

Hi everybody, today i went in a place nearby where i knew existed the same formation than in my favourite trilobite place.

That was the second time i went there. The first time i didn't found the good layer but i passed in front of it ! That time, i passed in front of it also and a second time on my way back and that's only at that time that i noticed fossils. Not trilobites, but now that i know where to look...

 

I found this :

 

Those odd bumpy holes and maybe the bug that made them. It has a spongy look, but all of it : the bug and the holes might be bryozoars, or so i think.

 

And i also found that :

[minnbuckeye]

The bumpy things look like coral that has dissolved away leaving the infilled imprints(bumps) of the coralites. Press clay in there and see if the clay looks like coral.

 

 Mike

[Coco]

Nice pictures of the Pays Basque ! Is it a Mérens horse or a Pottok ? Rather the 2nd proposal ?

 

Coco

[Doctor Mud]

What a beautiful place, wonderful photos and description. Oh and fossils too  So nice to be out with great people in the outdoors doing what you love.

[fifbrindacier]

17 hours ago, Coco said:

Nice pictures of the Pays Basque ! Is it a Mérens horse or a Pottok ? Rather the 2nd proposal ?

 

Coco

It's in the Bearn so, near the Pays Basque. I think this horse is more parent with the Mérens race because it is black and higher than Pottokak (plural mode in Basque) are. But it might be from the two races either.

[fifbrindacier]

20 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

The bumpy things look like coral that has dissolved away leaving the infilled imprints(bumps) of the coralites. Press clay in there and see if the clay looks like coral.

 

 Mike

I'll try this after my holidays : i have three nights of work and then two weeks of fossil hunting holidays , i'll go in Charentes Maritimes, so, Dogger and Cenomanian material. All what i say for now is that some bumps seem to present a little hole at their top.

[fifbrindacier]

17 hours ago, Doctor Mud said:

What a beautiful place, wonderful photos and description. Oh and fossils too  So nice to be out with great people in the outdoors doing what you love.

You know, i'm glad to have found the place where fossils are. It is the same formation than in the previous place, and, it is accessible. So, i know i'll find trilobites there, i just need to come back there from time to time and be patient, even though or, mostly because, time is against me because my husband's Alzheimer begins to cause me some problems. For now, i still can let him walk away before me without fear, but it won't last for a long time.

I know another site where trilobites can be found and the last time i went there i had to go back early because my husband, who thought there will be a storm was in panic. This is also a place where there is a really beautiful scenery where cretaceous cliffs overlap and stand alongside devonian layers. I have some indications on where to find fossils there. I don't despair to find ones.

 

They are somewhere here :

 

Maybe there :

 

There :

 

Or there :

[fifbrindacier]

A friend of mine found that :

[Monica]

GORGEOUS photos, Sophie!  I wish I could be out hunting with you - perhaps one day I'll make it to France for a little fossiling...