Trip report: The Fantastic Fossils of Southern France

[FossilLerp2]

Hello everyone!

 

This summer, me and my family went to the Provence, southern France. We were heading to the Baronnies and Carniol, a natural park in the Provence and a tiny village. This area is known for its Early-Cretaceous fossils. We went to four locations: Combe Reboul, , Le Mas, Bellegarde-en-Diois and Carniol. The first four are very close to each other, so I'll start with those.

 

The First Area: la Charce

La Charce is a small village in the Baronnies, and is located in the centre of all the fossil hunting sites of the area. Near the village lays Serre de l'Âne, a unique geological site. What it comes down to, is that it's basically a book of outcrops that accurately describes the transition from one stage (Valanginian) to another one (Hauterivian) for about 5 million years. Here's a website for more information: Website about Serre de l'Âne. 

 

SERRE DE L'ÂNE     

 Pictures were taken by myself

 

 

This site was used to be known for its beautiful fossils, but now it's closed for fossil hunting. However, the site itself is very nice and has a great picnic spot. It is truly magnificent to see the layers of limestone and marl like this.

 

Anyways, since this site is closed for fossil hunting, we went to the gorge right next to it: Combe Reboul. The fossils from Combe Reboul are from the upper-Valanginian to Hauterivian, both stages of the lower Cretaceous epoch, so 130-140 ma years old. The marine fauna contained a ton of ammonites, so those are the fossils you find the most. 

 

         

COMBE REBOUL -- Pictures taken by me

COMBE REBOUL

This site is somewhat incredible, when we came across an exposed layer of limestone we found ammonites of multiple genera and belemnites and bivalves too.  The most common ammonite to find here is from the genus Crioceratites, a heteromorph ammonite. (The inner spiral is disconnected from the outer spiral) It's just bizarre to realize that evolution had once created creatures that had beautiful shapes like this, and this isn't even the weirdest ammonite that is out there!

 

     FOSSILS OF COMBE REBOUL -- Pictures by me 

 

LE MAS

Next to Combe Reboul is le Mas, another deposition. We didn't find a lot in this one, so I won't talk very long about this site. The fossils are from the upper-Valanginian stage, and again, mostly ammonites are found here. Weirdly, we didn't find any ammonites of the Crioceratites genus here. To find stuff here, you should walk along the path uphill and carefully look for fossils. You could go to the deposition north of the path, though I didn't have a lot of success there.

LE MAS -- Picture was taken by me

 

BELLEGARDE-EN-DIOIS

We also went to Bellegarde-En-Diois, a small village north of La Charce. We found an exposed layer of limestone with many imprints of ammonites. They were very fragile, but we found some less fragile fossils too. This place and Col de Prémol (a tiny village just north of Bellegarde) are known for their beautiful pyrite ammonites, though we didn't find them. 

 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

At almost every mountain climbing trip we had this holiday, we found fossils. So even when you're not expecting them, just see if you can find anything if there's limestone laying around.

For example, I found this ammonite of the genus Lytoceras on a random mountain where I didn't expect fossils:

 LYTOCERAS SPEC. -- Photo was taken by me

 

I am currently working on a map of all the locations in the Baronnies (+Carniol) on Google Earth, here is a link, but it's still a WIP: https://earth.google.com/earth/d/16rC52Gd2tP5fKniCggfOEK0L3E4sV7zO?usp=sharing

I've never been to most of these locations, so going there is at own risk. I found most of the locations in an old Dutch magazine from the nineties, so there could be nothing to find. Here's a download link to that DUTCH magazine: (PDF) Het Onder-Krijt van de Provence. GEA 21(1): 1-36, 7 plates, 32 figs. (researchgate.net)

Some locations were found with Paleontica.org, here is a link to the specific page: Fossil Location Les Baronnies, France (paleontica.org)

 

I will be releasing part II of this trip report soon (it's about Carniol, so you should read it) so stay tuned!

 

MAP OF THE 3 MAIN LOCATIONS -- google earth

Edited August 27, 2021 by FossilLerp2
Grammar edits and some improvements right off the bat

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very interesting, I enjoyed this very much. 

Look forward to the next instalment. 

[jpc]

This is fun.  Makes me want to go back to this area.  Thanks for sharing.

 

[Everhardus]

Nice, this brings back memories..... Too bad you didn't find anything on Col de Premol, normally a pretty good site for pyrite ammo's....

[FossilLerp2]

We didn't go to col de Prémol, we didn't have enough time. We did find some ammonites in Bellegarde-en-Diois,  just south of col de Prémol, but they weren't pyritized.

2 hours ago, Everhardus said:

Nice, this brings back memories..... Too bad you didn't find anything on Col de Premol, normally a pretty good site for pyrite ammo's....

 

[FossilLerp2]

PART II: CARNIOL

After our holiday in the Baronnies, we went to another place in the Provence. We made a stop in Carniol, and stayed there for about ~2.5 hours. Now, this hunting site is different from any other site I've ever been to. The grey, marl hills are littered with small, pyritized ammonites and some other fossils too. It was a sight to behold. 

 

Info about this site

The marl hills are from the Aptian stage, from the Early-Cretaceous epoch. I don't know why there are such amounts of fossils to be found here, but maybe someone else does. The species aren't very diverse, I think I found about ~150 ammonites of 2 species. We did find some other species, but not a lot. Heteromorph ammonites are quite common too, their shape is very distinct from the other ammonites. There are two sites near this village: one is east of the village, the other one is west of the village. They are practically the same. 

 

Info about the fossils

As I said, ammonites are very, very common here. (They are everywhere) Gastropods and belemnites are also found here, and we discovered a couple of bivalves. The rarest find was a small fish vertebra:

 

 

 

I will send more pictures of fossils and unknown fossils I found when I'm done with this part.

Anyways, we found about 7 species of ammonites. We found a lot of belemnites too, but again, not a lot of species. (Two, to be precise) 

The most common ammonite was from the genus Aconeceras: 

 

 

That wraps up this trip report, though I will be posting pictures of fossils from the first locations and Carniol. I really hope you enjoyed reading my trip report, I had loads of fun writing it. I would like to thank @Max-fossils for the extra information he gave me about parking, and he did the fossil IDs of this post too, check out his post about Carniol for pictures of the site itself: Fantastic cephalopods from Carniol! - Fossil Hunting Trips - The Fossil Forum. Thanks again, and stay tuned for some beautiful fossil-pictures!

- FossilLerp2

Edited September 2, 2021 by FossilLerp2

[FossilLerp2]

Olcostephanus spec. (dimensions are in cm)

Found in: Combe Reboul, La Charce, in a field just before the gorge begins.

Date of the find: 27-07-2021

Age of the specimen: Early-Cretaceous, Hauterivian. 

 

 

Crioceratites Nolani

Found in: Combe Reboul, La Charce.

Date of the find: 27-07-2021

Age of the specimen: Early Cretaceous, Hauterivian

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by FossilLerp2

[FossilLerp2]

 

Crioceratites Loryi

Found in: Combe Reboul, La Charce

Date of the find: 27-07-2021

Age of specimen: Early-Cretaceous, Hauterivian

 

 

 

 

[FossilLerp2]

 

Macroscaphites Striatisulcatus

Found in: Carniol

Date of the find: 31-07-2021

Age of specimen: Early-Cretaceous, Aptian

 

 

[Max-fossils]

Great trip report, well done!

I'm glad I could help you for Part II, and very happy that you managed to find a bit more than just the Aconeceras ammonites and belemnites  

That little fish vert is great!

[FossilLerp2]

Thank you!