Prospection day in the Ardennes.

[Manticocerasman]

This is a little prospaction day that we have done a month ago.

 

The original thought was to go to Barveaux in the Ardennes, a site renowned for its spirifers and prospect other locations.

The first stop was the area of Barveaux itself, but everything was overgrown and hard to access, so we didn't find anything here.

 

We then hit the road to the south and prospected a few outcrops without a lot of success.

 

After a while we passed Marche en Famenne,. Nearby was a industrial area where in the past I've found lots of spiriferids on construction sites, so we decided to give it a go.

When we got there no new construction projects were going on, but a large area was leveled for future building projects. Although a little overgrown, the whole area was accessible and slate was all over the area.

 

It didn't take long before we found the first spirifers. Apparently this site hasn't been prospected in a while, the whole area proved to be littered with spiriferids, although most of the time weathered. After an hour or two we had filled a bucket with them. 

 

After this we were heading home, meanwhile keeping an eye out to outcrops or building sites. We did find another small piece of land ready for construction and full of slate.

Not a lot was to be found here except an odd round shaped nodule that got my attention. I got it out of the ground and after cleaning it up there were septa visible at the back.

The nodule turned out to be a fragment of a large cephalopod, a great way to end the day of prospection.

 

 

the Cephalopod fragment:

[nala]

Very nice report and finds! !

[FranzBernhard]

Sweet! Thanks for sharing!

And reminds me somewhat of my pulling of fossils from forest road pavements !
Franz Bernhard

[Tidgy's Dad]

And the nautiloid is a great find.