Weird fossils/stones at ENCI-quarry

[Anita Raffen]

Hi folks,

 

Let me introduce myself. My name is anita and I'm from the Netherlands.
Two weeks ago I went for a walk with my little son (he is facinated by fossils) at the ENCI-quarry in Maastricht, Netherlands. 

 

He has found a total of two "wierd" stones or fossils and we would like to know what they are. 

 

Fossil number 1) This stone had a wierd shape. We thought there might be a fossil in here. When I smashed it open at home there was a petrified ball in this stone? We found this stone along a marl/limestone quarry. 

 

Fossil number 2) It looks like there is an imprint of a fossil in this stone. Could this be a print of a piece of branch/wood or a belemnite? We found this stone on the footpath.

 

One problem: of both fossils I do not know the geological era.

 

We are very curious to hear your opinion 

 

Kind regards.

 

PS, here is the link to a website about the ENCI area in English. Maybe this helps. 

 

 

[Rockwood]

I think the first one is a layered concretion. The more soluble layer being 'solved'. 

The material's texture in the second would tend to indicate a crinoid stem. The state of preservation could be a problem however.  Nautiloid maybe ?

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello, Anita, and a very warm welcome to TFF from Morocco. 

Please don't use coins for scale, a lot of non-EU folk won't have a clue how big that is. 

 

Your first specimen is indeed a concretion. 

The other looks like a horsetail stem to me, but I don't know if that's possible at this site which contains marine fossils but the plants may have been washed out to sea. 

The age of the deposits is Maastrichtian, roughly 72 to 66 million years ago, the last part of the Cretaceous period.

 

[Ludwigia]

The first is definitely a concretion. As to the second one, there weren't any straight shelled nautiloidea in the Maastrichtian to the best of my knowledge. I'm tending to go along with Tidgy's Dad, but I'm not at all sure due to the somewhat rough preservation, so I could also see a crinoid stem as another possibility.

[Anita Raffen]

Thank you all for the information! Very kind of you all 

Tidgy's Dad, okay I promis not to use coins anymore ;) 

 

Kind regards