Yet more devonian cephalopods from Belgium

[Manticocerasman]

Last weekend I had again a field trip to my favorite location in the area of Couvin.

We went to the quarry with a geology club, around 20 participants came to the meeting point.

Everyone got a quick briefing of the geology and paleontology of the quarry and the usual safety instructions before going down in the quarry.

Once at the interesting spot we noted a few changes: a pile of gray nodular limestone was freshly excavated.

In those boulders a few of us found large well preserved goniatites. I had the chance to find a nice one from around 8cm in diameter.

After a careful examination of the boulder I went on top of the quarry to dig out a layer yielding small cephalopods ( orthoceras, manticoceras and bactrites ) I had to dig whit a heavy pickaxe, but I was able to clear a decent part of that layer for me and a couple of the other searchers.

The hard work paid off, I found around 20 goniatites and a whole bunch of orthocones, most of them are waiting for a cleanup and prepwork.

While leaving the quarry I saw a piece of shell sticking out of a stone, a lucky split of that rock turned out to reveal a large Goniatite with beautiful suture lines. This one will require some extra prepwork, but it looks very promising.

[nala]

Wow! great finds and pictures!

[belemniten]

Congrats to this great finds !
Looks like a lot of fun

[Angie]

Great finds very nice report!

[doushantuo]

Magnificent report,great pix,stunning fossils.

<a totally unbiased observer from a neighbouring country>

Paleozoic cephalopods rule!!

also: great yellow hardhats!

Those have to be worn because you throw inferior-looking specimens at each other? .

I can draw up a custom liability waiver.

It will make the hats superfluous

[fossisle]

great cephalopods

[JohnBrewer]

Great trip report and photos

[Barerootbonsai]

Really nice

[Ludwigia]

You sure are developing a nose for those goniatites, Kevin!

[Manticocerasman]

You sure are developing a nose for those goniatites, Kevin!

I really love those Cephalopods . they are only found in a couple of layers and I’m really getting the hang of it to recognize the right rocks and layers for them. I’m still working on all the specimens I found there, making a whole database of the ones that I found. A friend of mine ( geologist ) is making a study on them and their stratigraphic distribution at that location, a lot of the geological situation here is still uncertain.

So once all my prepwork and notes are complete I’ll send him the files for his work. Hopefully he will be able to use al that data.

Here is the first prep of this week

[FossilDudeCO]

Great finds and nice report!

Thanks for bringing us along!

[Fossildude19]

Very cool finds!

Can't wait to see the one with the sutures prepped.

Thanks for the report, Kevin.

Regards,

[Wrangellian]

[Manticocerasman]

Very cool finds!

Can't wait to see the one with the sutures prepped.

Thanks for the report, Kevin.

Regards,

THX, the one with the sutures is up next, I dont know if it wil work out fine, but I'll try.

For now I cleaned up the sides a litle, reduced the matrix on top and glued the parts back together.

[Ludwigia]

[Jeffrey P]

Hi Kevin,

I never tire of seeing your Devonian ammos which are similar to ones I see here in New York. Good luck with the prep of

that beauty with the sutures. Thanks for posting the pics, especially the in situ ones. Looks like you and everyone had a great time.

[Fossildude19]

[Manticocerasman]

An update on the preparation of the cephalopods:

The big one is on hold for now, I was able to clear out a little more, but now the matrix is giving me a hard time to separate from the shell.

Also a few parts are missing where the stone broke in 2 parts:

 

The saller ones are doing much better. Here are a couple of fine specimens from last trip:

 

 

 

[Barerootbonsai]

Cleaning up lovely

[Ash]

Nice, Kev!