Fossil hunting trip to Hotton (Devonian of Belgium)

[ziggycardon]

Hi everyone! 

Last saturday we went on a fossil hunting trip with the BVP to Hotton in the Belgian Ardennes. 
https://www.paleontica.org/locations/fossil/667

 

There were 2 different locations planned for the day, the first was the "Carrière de Marenne" quarry in Hotton were we spent most of the day. 
It was my first time at this location, so I didn't have very high expectations but we were very pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of the finds which made for a very productive and succesfull trip! 
Unfortunately like so often I forgot to make pictures inside the quarry... So it will mainly be a report of the finds rather than the excavation. 
The age of the layers date back to the Givetian stage of the middle Devonian which lasted from 388 million years ago to 383 million years ago. 

There were 3 spots inside the quarry were we searched for fossils. 

 

We started on the east side of the quarry where we found some weathered corals, a bivalve and some bryozoans. 
One of our friends was very lucky when they found a fragment of Placoderm bone.. 

 

the 2nd spot we searched was still on the east side of the Quarry but this time near the big rock outcrop which devides the quarry in two pieces. 
Here we all hit gold as this was a large area where it was full with weathered fossils in great condition ready to be picked up! 
No need for hammers here, just grabbing which was laying on the ground as it was littered with corals en brachiopods. We almost collected a bucket full from this area alone. 

The 3rd spot was the west side of the quarry which was divided in multiple levels. I mainly searched in a large rock pile with some others as it seems these were the remains of an ancient coral bank. We found many large corals here like Hexagonaria and Favosites as well as some nice mineral specimens to much delight of my girlfriend. 

Someone did do the find of the day here when he found 2 extremely large Stringocephalus brachiopods.
I also went with Tom, our group leader to prospect the rest of the quarry but beside some corals I didn't find much more things of interest. 

At the end of the trip we were given some nice mineral specimens by Tom who found some on the lowest level of the quarry which we didn't visit ourselves.

 

Here the only photo I made inside the quarry, were my girlfriend was building a rock fortress. (Everyone was on a one hour break due to the early summer heat)

 

And here are our finds from inside the quarry:

 

A large Hexagonaria sp. coral which we managed the haul home, one of the perks when you bring a wheelbarrow to a quarry!  

 

 

Another nice Hexagonaria sp. coral

 

 

And our 3rd large piece of Hexagonaria sp. coral

 

 

One of the Favosites sp. corals we brought home.

 

 

Another Favosites coral

 

 

An our chuncky Favosites coral

 

 

A weathered Hexagonaria coral.

 

 

A bivalve we found early at the beginning of the search.

[ziggycardon]

Here are a couple of the finds we did at the 2nd spot in the quarry where the fossils were nicely weathered out of the rock ready to be picked up:

 

Loads of Brachiopods, Atrypa sp.

 

 

A couple of different Brachiopods, not sure about the species.

 

 

One of the few Atrypa multiblocks we found.

 

 

Some different Brachiopods.

 

 

Loads of Acanthophyllum sp. corals

 

Some Acanthophyllum multiblocks as well, I hope to clean them up a bit more.

 

 

Some unidentified coral

 

 

Some more corals, mainly Thamnopora I believe.

 

[ziggycardon]

A Brachiopod showing it's interior structure

 

 

Some nice crystalization inside some fragmented brachiopod remains

 

 

Tiny Brachiopod on an Atrypa

 

 

Not sure what the tiny stary structure is, a forarm perhaps?

 

 

Unidentified coral

 

 

Thamnopora coral?

 

 

A small Brachiopod

 

 

And some of our favorite minerals from the day

 

A large nice cluster of Calcite crystals in some sort of geode.
According to a regular of the quarry these type of crystal clusters are rather rare for the location.

 

 

The 2 minerals given to us by excursion leader Tom.
I am inclining towards Calcite but I am not certain.

 

 

And this piece with some purple crystals, some members theorised it could be fluorite.

 

 

 

 

[ziggycardon]

After our visit to the quarry we went for a drink with our small group to a B&B nearby which was owned by two members of the club for a drink. 
We had some good conversations over the good food, drink and company.

This also takes us to our 2nd location of the day cause only 350 meters from the B&B was a temporary mount with stone dump for a construction. 
This stone was made out of shale from the Barvaux formation which is famous for it's large Spirifer specimens. 

 

 

 

Some various other brachiopods either Xystostrophia umbracula or Schizophoria striatula

[Misha]

These are so cool, always love seeing these Devonian fossils from Belgium!

[Euhoplites]

The classic barvaux spirifer, they are just too pretty not to collect  Some nice corals too, seems like nice day out!

[Mark Kmiecik]

Excellent finds! Thank you for posting your trip.

[jpc]

Thanks for sharing. Looks lke a great day out

[ziggycardon]

Thank you all! I was a very worthwhile trip which I very much enjoyed. 
Definiatly a place I will visit again in the future.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Superb trip report! 

Sorry that I missed it at the time.

Some of the corals and brachiopods are outstanding. 

[ziggycardon]

On 10/10/2022 at 9:07 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Superb trip report! 

Sorry that I missed it at the time.

Some of the corals and brachiopods are outstanding. 

Thank you, the quality and number of finds during this trip was quite the surprise!