New Rudist Site at Römaskogel, Kainach, Styria, Austria (Gosau-Group of Kainach)

[FranzBernhard]

Hello,

sure I can not beat the lovely pics, scenery and fossils posted recently by @RuMert, but I also had a nice fossil encounter two days ago (10/02/2021).

After prospecting for Pb-Zn-Ba with friends from Lower Austria in the area of Peggau, I decided to visit Römaskogel in Kainach again (just 20 km away), especially to take home a big rudist specimen still waiting there. Arriving there, I decided to check out the surroundings of two recently (some weeks ago) found Vaccinites (quite a distance away from the already known occurrences), on the way to that specimen. Just 50 m away from the car, still far above of the two earlier found specimens, I encountered the first rudist, freely lying on the forest floor. And the next near it, and the next and so on. In total, about 20 specimens were just lying around in the forest in an area of a few 100 m². And I did not search hard, because most time I tried to find the exposure with these rudists. A step ledge was promising, showing some overgrown exposures of conglomerate. Well, at the northern edge of this ledge, I really found an "outcrop" with rudists, but it could also be a block. I don´t know yet. Anyways, further detailed prospecting is urgently needed ("The Never Ending Story" ).

This is the first rudist site in the northern Kainach Gosau with scattered and freely visible rudists not related to forest road construction. The fossil site shown here belongs to the "Upper Rudist Zone" with conglomeratic host rock of the lower Afling-formation (upper Santonian - lower Campanian). All rudists found so far are Vaccinites sp.

 

Map showing fossiliferous zones of the northern Kainach Gosau. The site presented here is the northeastern extension of the dark blue "Hangende Rudisten-Zone".

 

First rudist encounter of that day, near the home of a badger. The pen has a total length of 13.7 cm, the red part is 3.9 cm long, and

all rudists are photographed in-situ, unless mentioned otherwise:

 

Just a meter or so away, the second rudist near a root (pen!):

 

And the next one, a slender, nearly complete one, some shell is missing, though:

 

And the next one nearby, not very obvious (below the red x), but its a short fragment of a Vaccinites:

 

The next one near a big root. Not well visible on the larger pics, but this was a real surprise, see last pic...

Ups, turned out to be a large, nearly complete Vaccinites, nearly 20 cm long. The opposite site is a little bit crushed, but that´s ok, nobody is perfect .

 

And so on and so on...

 

This is the supposed outcrop as found (below the red x), very tiny (as everything in Austria ), and a loose rudist specimen near the pen. 

You can imagine something like a ledge in that area, if you like :

 

"Outcrop" a little bit cleaned:

 

Loose specimen in detail, a fragment of a big Vaccinites:

 

"Outcrop" in detail:

 

"Outcrop" after excavation. Its a pseudocolony of several Vaccinites, already broken into 4 pieces. Haven´t explored the "scenery" behind that pieces yet.

Maybe its part of a larger outcrop, probably not:

 

And last, something geological. Here and there you can find quite big boulders mostly made of fossil-free limestone or dolostone in the northern Kainach Gosau. This is a dolostone boulder of at least one cubic meter in size. Its a giant clast within the conglomerates and probably of paleozoic age:

 

Hope you enjoyed a litte bit, thanks for looking. I am still very surprised and somewhat excited by that find, the first area with naturally free lying rudists of the northern Kainach Gosau. You never know whats behind the next tree, even in such a supposed fossil-poor area like the Kainach Gosau. Prospecting is everything !

Franz Bernhard

[Tidgy's Dad]

Most splendid, Franz Bernhard, an excellent report and photos. 

It's amazing to see all those rudists just lying around ready to be picked up. 

[RuMert]

Nice forest scenery A shore always looks good, but forest is our birthplace after all

[FranzBernhard]

On 10/4/2021 at 2:14 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

It's amazing to see all those rudists just lying around ready to be picked up.

Yes, this was a great surprise, nothing like that found before in that general area.

I picked only one - the largest. All others are still there, put back into their original position.

I will probably doing some small prospecting digs at some spots to check out if and how many rudists are below the immediate surface.

Main goal, however, is to find an exposure (Where exactly do they come from?).

Oh well, so many things to do in the field...

 

On 10/4/2021 at 10:29 PM, RuMert said:

Nice forest scenery

Thanks! I am almost always prospecting in forested areas, mostly on forest roads. Sometimes in creeks, but these are also nearly always located in forests.

 

Franz Bernhard

[Mainefossils]

Very nice! Those rudists are beautiful, and that outcrop is so small! Thanks for posting! 

[Wrangellian]

It's a stretch to call that an outcrop, yet there are so many fossils littered around. The source material must be very fossiliferous rock indeed, wherever it is!