Fossil hunting trip to Couvin (Devonian of Belgium)

[ziggycardon]

Hi everyone! 

Today I went on another fossil hunting trip with the fossil club the BVP. 

https://www.paleontica.org/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=3&language=en
We visited the "La Couvinoise" quarry in Couvin, Belgium. The rocks in this quarry are part of the Hanonet Formation which lies at the boundry of the Eifelian & Givetian. But the layers we searched in today where all Givetian in age (387,7 - 382,7 mya), I mainly searched in the Crinoïd & Brachiopod layer. 

Although I have to admit that we probably visited the quarry at a bad moment, as the yield was quite poor in the quarry this time according to members who've been there before. 
Which was quite obvious as I think we only found our first fossil rich rocks after 50 minutes of searching and even then the first hour of finds where few and poor in quality. 
But after a while of searching I found some good and rich blocks and managed to get some decent Crinoïd stems, Brachiopods and some rugose coral pieces.  

But the best 3 finds we did during the last 30 minutes of being in the quarry. 

 

The 1st one was the only Trilobite I found during the hunt! Trilos are very rare from this quarry and I believe only 1 other member found one before me on this trip. I found a pygidium which is still partially enbedded in rock. At first I wasn't sure whether I was a trilo or a brachiopod but after having a couple of other members checking it out, they all believed it to be trilobite. 
The excursion leader time was quite amazed by the find as this trilo came from the Crinoïd layer, which is a layer where he believed no trilobite had ever been found. The trilobites are usually found in another part and layer a bit further in the quarry. So yeah I am very pleased with that find!  

 

The 2nd best find, was one I didn't find myself but recieved from our Excursion leader Tom, which was a piece of very nice Stromatoporoidea which I wasn't lucky enough to find. 

 

The 3rd best find an perhaps my favorite was something that Tom told me to check out. 
He had discovered the remains of a cave that collapsed during some excavations in the quarry. You could clearly see the remains of dripping stones on the walls and luckily for us, some pieces of those dripping stones where also laying on the ground. 
So I managed to take a nice piece of them home with me  

They are encrusted with a layer of dried mud but I am sure they will look gorgeous once they are cleaned!  
The rings are already clearly visable in some areas.

 

Here are some pictures from inside the quarry.

 

This was the way to the newly excavated plateau which unfortunatly was a complete was of time as not a single fossil could be found in those rocks.

 

After that we went to the other lower parts of the quarry where I mainly worked in a single piece of wall in the Crinoïd layer. I was lucky enough to find a few good fallen blocks and some good places in the wall with some decent Crinoïds and Brachiopods. 

 

One of the nice Crinoïds stems I found in the layer.

 

 

And here is the piece of wall that has some of the dripping stones in it.

 

 

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And here is what I brought back from the quarry! 
Most of the finds aren't as nice as the ones from Resteigne and due to much of dust and dried mud covering the layers in the quarry need much needed cleaning but here they are.

 

Some Crinoïd stems

 

An enbedded Brachiopod

 

A block with some pretty nice Brachiopods

 

The Trilobite Pygidium I found 

 

And our pieces of dripping stone!

 

And that is all for now I am affraid, the rest need a lot more cleaning and probably some prepping before they are a little bit recognisable to post here.

But as soon as they are I'll show them here!

Although I probably first go through my finds from Resteigne from 2 days ago and update that topic before I'll start on these finds  

As you can see, I have a lot of material to go through  

[FossilNerd]

Not bad Ziggy! Some hunts are better than others. I have been to places that produced bucket loads one day, and the next hunt I'd be lucky to get a pocket full of good stuff!

 

The cave speleothem is very cool! Any chance we could see a close up of the Stromatoporoid?  

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17 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

Not bad Ziggy! Some hunts are better than others. I have been to places that produced bucket loads one day, and the next hunt I'd be lucky to get a pocket full of good stuff!

 

The cave speleothem is very cool! Any chance we could see a close up of the Stromatoporoid?  

That's true enough, it definatly wasn't a bad haul as I came home with some great pieces  

 

Thank you and yes, here it is  

 

[RuMert]

Good job! Finding fossils on your own is more thrilling than buying even the finest specimens 

[Manticocerasman]

Nice finds Ken, did you Id the trilobite pygidium? 

[Monica]

Another successful hunt! 

Congratulations on finding your second trilobite! 

[ziggycardon]

On 20-9-2020 at 4:49 PM, RuMert said:

Good job! Finding fossils on your own is more thrilling than buying even the finest specimens 

Thank you, it does indeed feel very good to find them yourself  

2 hours ago, Manticocerasman said:

Nice finds Ken, did you Id the trilobite pygidium? 

Thank you and no, not entirely yet.

But after going through some of the species that are found both in Couvin as in other locations in the Ardennes I suspect it might belong to the genus Dechenella. It has that ring (I don't know what it is actually called) around the ribs and the only species that has that (which I came accross in my research thus far) which could be found in the region is the Dechenella genus. The other apperently don't have that ring around the ribs in the Pygidium.

But yeah, I am not entirely sure whether my thinking and research is entirely correct/complete.

 

9 minutes ago, Monica said:

Another successful hunt! 

Congratulations on finding your second trilobite! 

Thank you, I really didn't expect to find a 2nd one so soon after the first  

[Manticocerasman]

1 minute ago, ziggycardon said:

Thank you, it does indeed feel very good to find them yourself  

Thank you, not entirely yet. But after going through some of the species that are found both in Couvin as in other locations in the Ardennes I suspect it might belong to the genus Dechenella. It has that ring (I don't know what it is actually called) around the ribs and the only species that has that (which I came accross in my research thus far) which could be found in the region is the Dechenella genus. The other apperently don't have that ring around the ribs in the Pygidium.

But yeah, I am not entirely sure whether my thinking and research is entirely correct/complete.

 

you are spot on with Dechenella. I would keep it at Dechenella sp.  

[ziggycardon]

4 minutes ago, Manticocerasman said:

you are spot on with Dechenella. I would keep it at Dechenella sp.  

I suposse the one we found at Resteigne is also Dechenella as it also has that ring around the ribs.

 

[ziggycardon]

Today I have finished going through my material from the trip to Couvin. 

I think managed to free the best find from the rocks and I cleaned them as best as I could. 
I do have some bigger rocks with some inclusions but I stored them for now until I have better tools to prep them out. 

But this is eventually what I got so far:

 

One of my favorite blocks with some Brachiopods (Atrypa sp.?) and some micro inclusions but I haven't figured out what they are yet.

 

A block with a Brachiopod (could it be Cyrtospirifer sp.?), a crinoïd stem and a piece of coral or Bryozoan

 

I also found another specimen like the one in the block above.

Coral or Bryozoan is my guess, but I have a hard time differentiating them as they are not my area of expertise.

 

One of the cooler finds I discorvered during prep & cleaning, Could this be a Crinoïd head or is it a coral?

Whatever it is, it definiatly is good looking  

 

A piece of Rugose Coral

 

The trilobite pygidium (Dechenella sp.)

 

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My favorite Crinoïd stem I found, unfortunaly it broke during extraction but I was able to glue it back together and it is by far the biggest Crinoïd piece I found  

 

Multiple Crinoïd stem fragments

 

A Stromatoporoid

 

Either a piece of coral (Thamnopora cervicornis) or a Bryozoan (Leioclema sp.)

 

A Brachiopod, but I am unsure about what species it is.

 

A Brachiopod (Undisprifer sp.)

 

Multiple Brachiopods (Undisprifer sp.)

 

A unknown Brachiopod, with some great details of the shell and some triangular shaped edgings near the mouth of the shell.

 

Brachiopods (Cyrtospirifer sp.?)

 

A Brachiopod, could this be Arduspirifer sp.?

 

Some more Brachiopods, Arduspirifer sp.?

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And the dripping stone after cleaning it a bit