R0b Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 As a later summer vacation we decided to do a road trip - Tour de France. France having many interesting destinations and things to do and collecting fossils would be one of them. As we usually don’t plan our trips beyond a few days ahead also the fossil locations were decided on the road. But when reading about Carniol it became clear it was one we had to include. Other non fossil highlights of the trip were Bordeaux, the Pyrenees, Toulouse (great museum of natural history), Lyon and of course Pont du Gard. When finding out about Carniol I did some further reading on how to get there. Apparently the French drive on the very bad (not true) roads to get there like madman (true) at 90 km/h (sometimes true), the cliffs and canyons are very scary (not after the Pyrenees) and parking was also going to be a challenge (it was easy). Carniol is a tiny village and probably the fossil sites are it’s main tourist attraction although calling Carniol touristic is probably very far from reality. Near the village there are two places where the fossil rich clay is exposed and can be easily reached from the road (50-100m walk). The grey clay can be recognised from a distance so it didn’t take us long to get at the site (we only visited the western one but they are supposed to be similar). We were lucky that there was heavy rain in the days before our visit as this exposes the fossils. The downside is that the clay is very sticky and heavy and it forms a plateau under your shoes. As mentioned before the fossils are washed out of the clay and you just need to pick them up. Unfortunately larger fossils are poorly conserved and some nice pieces crumbled after picking them up. But the small fossils are many and diverse. We found lots of what we recognised like Ammonites including heteromorphs, belemnites, gastropods and bivalves like this. As I read that taking some of the clay for washing was of interest (we didn’t prepare for this) we filled an empty 5 liter water container with clay. As we had an appointment for dinner in Lyon and we were satisfied with our finds we left after about two hours. But the rest of the vacation I kept thinking about starting to wash and sort our finds. Back home it became obvious we had some nice finds even before finishing sorting everything. A big tooth my partner picked up but she didn’t recognise as such and she didn’t tell me about (Protosphyraena with a small?). From the clay we brought home, I found a jaw fragment (identified on Reddit as Saurian). Still a lot of material to go through as for now I am just grouping the finds. In due time I hope to get some help with further identification of everything although I will give it a try myself with the information already available here and on other sites. 1 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 That is an amazing concentration of small ammonites! I wish we had a site like that over here in the southeastern USA. Don 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 You should wind up with some incredible beauties from that concentration. 1 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0b Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) @FossilDAWG I would say if one is close to a site like this one should definitely visit it once… or probably more often. I will be back as I have a friend nearby as from my home it is a 10 hours drive. But south east USA isn’t that big shark teeth country? That is something I would like nearby. @JohnJ I will share my finds hopefully starting this weekend. So far the one I added as profile image is one of my favourites. Edited October 21, 2021 by R0b 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuMert Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 Nice report. The ammonites are probably not small unless found small in matrix. That's just the center that got preserved. Happens often, especially with pyrite 1 My sites & reports Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0b Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 9 minutes ago, RuMert said: Nice report. The ammonites are probably not small unless found small in matrix. That's just the center that got preserved. Happens often, especially with pyrite I will take your word for that, most if not all are found on to of the clay. Occasionally larger fragments are found but also oxidised remains that crumble in your hands. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Nice report, and a location I'll certainly bookmark for a potential visit at some later point. My wife still wants to make a trip through southern France before we move away from here, and I've been on the look-out to add a bit of fossiling to her plans to keep it interesting for me as well By the way, I find that with sites so replete in small material, it often pays to just shovel up a bucket-full of the stuff and sort through it at home. Much easier to pick up on the richness of the clay that way, as in the field it's easy to miss things... 1 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nala Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Great finds and report! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0b Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 3 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said: Nice report, and a location I'll certainly bookmark for a potential visit at some later point. My wife still wants to make a trip through southern France before we move away from here, and I've been on the look-out to add a bit of fossiling to her plans to keep it interesting for me as well By the way, I find that with sites so replete in small material, it often pays to just shovel up a bucket-full of the stuff and sort through it at home. Much easier to pick up on the richness of the clay that way, as in the field it's easy to miss things... The first part is not so much a concern for me, but the Provence is nice as you probably know If you are into hiking Gorges du Verdon is nearby (also fossils). One bucket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 10 hours ago, R0b said: The first part is not so much a concern for me, but the Provence is nice as you probably know If you are into hiking Gorges du Verdon is nearby (also fossils). We were never really big on hiking, but with our two young kids this has kind of been sidelined even further... But I know the region from when I was a child - albeit not particularly good. The environment there is beautiful though... Soon what fossils are the ruin be found in the Gorges du Verdon? 10 hours ago, R0b said: One bucket? To be honest, I normally travel with two But in this trip, the car is likely to be very full already. Especially if we visit more than one fossiling site. So, in that case, one bucket per site will have to do 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opuntia Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Thank you for sharing. Beautiful finds 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0b Posted October 27, 2021 Author Share Posted October 27, 2021 5 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said: Soon what fossiele are the ruin be found in the Gorges du Verdon? Mainly Belemnites, Ammonites, Gastropods, Bivalves and Echinoids. It is also interesting for site seeing, take care fossil collecting is not allowed everywhere around it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 8 hours ago, R0b said: Mainly Belemnites, Ammonites, Gastropods, Bivalves and Echinoids. It is also interesting for site seeing, take care fossil collecting is not allowed everywhere around it. Thanks! If we ever do manage to go on that trip, I'll keep your advise in mind 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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