A second visit to the Wutach area in Southern Germany

[Everhardus]

Since we’ve had a pretty succesful fossiltrip in Southern Germany last year, visiting the Wutach area again for a few days seemed a more than logical choice since we would be passing Germany on our way back up from Italy to Holland for our summer holidays.

 

Sadly a few days before we arrived it became apparant that the weather predictions were very bad. Allthough the first two days were mostly dry, these daily rain showers were just enough to make everything wet and muddy and thus very slippery which isn’t helpfull in these mountains…..

 

Against all odds we still managed to find some nice fossils. Here’s an impression…..

 

 

Mud everwhere.....

[Everhardus]

The second day  i think we managed to find the same spot we were briefly at last year, allthough i'm not quite sure.....

First good find was this Nautilus, quite big (about 20 cm) but in a very hard block. I left it there, it would have taken me a loooooong time to extract and it would probable have broken in lots of pieces.....

[Everhardus]

I found this ammonite at the bottom of a mudstream. I could not quite see if it was complete and just in case allso collected a rock next to it. After a quick wash it turned out the two rocks were a perfect fit and it contained indeed a missing piece.  I've done some prepping on it allready and it presume this is a Hyperlioceras. Not something i expected to find....            

[Everhardus]

The weather on our last two days was quite nice. Somehow we managed to get up the hill differently and found ourselves at the top of the previous outcrop. So i decided to hammer away at these banks some and did indeed find some nice ammonites.

[Everhardus]

So our last day was again  a more or less dry one. Up the hill we passed  a spot where collectors had been digging under the roots of some trees. I decided to have a go at a big block. After about 45 minutes of digging and prying it was loose. Flipping it over reavealed these ammonites. Lovely but sadly not completely fossilised.....

This was also found the last day. This will take some time to prep properly since the rock (mostly at the back) is very hard.....

[Everhardus]

Some additional finds. First a Hyperlioceras, at least i presume....    Next one, i'm not so sure. 

 

There's a few more finds but since my dust extraction machine just broke down it could take a few weeks untill i can get back to prepping agian.

 

Greetz,Marcel

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations. Looks like you did quite well. Your ammonite finds are exquisite! Thanks for sharing. Love to see them all prepped. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice ammonites; lovely! 

[JohnBrian]

Beautiful pieces!

[RJB]

 Nothin like playin in the mud and lookin for fossils!!!  Nice ammos.

 

RB

[Ludwigia]

Hi Marcel,

 

Nice to see that you managed to extract some nice ammos from our site. Too bad I couldn’t accompany you, but I’m glad to see that you had some success. I’m still in Canada, but shall be flying home this evening. Didn’t you get to Hornussen?

 

Roger

[Everhardus]

Hi Roger,

Nope, because of the bad weather Hornussen was posponed for a week. Only way too attend would have been booking 5 extra nights which my wife wasn’t too keen on. So probably next year if all goes well……

Btw, have a good flight back home !!

[Ludwigia]

Too bad. I missed having the chance to collect there as well. Thanks for the good wishes.

[fossilhunter21]

Those are some lovely Ammos! 

[Opuntia]

Beautiful ammonites

 

[Everhardus]

Since my dustextraction is repaired i am able to prep  again so today i have finished this one.  On the side where the suture pattern is visible hardly any work had to be done. The back though was a lot of work. The matrix was very hard and i had to abrade up to 8 bar. Special care is needed near the keel on this one since it's thin and thus fragile. So it's a slow process but i think it has been worth it since this side is fully preserved with the original shell which looks amazing to me..... Comparing this to finds from the same area i'd say this must be a Staufenia staufensis.

[Ludwigia]

1 hour ago, Everhardus said:

Comparing this to finds from the same area i'd say this must be a Staufenia staufensis.

 

Correct. Nice work!

[Everhardus]

46 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Correct. Nice work!

Thanx !

[JustPlainPetrified]

Always love the ammonites!