Fossil hunting in the Formação dos Olhos de Ãgua

[Max-fossils]

Hello dear fossil-hunters!

 

So here is the report that a few of you have been waiting for: my trip to the Formação dos Olhos de Ãgua! So after a nice breakfast in the sun, we took the car from Vale do Lobo to Albufeira, another coastal city in the Algarve of Portugal. After just a bit of searching, we found a good parking spot for our car. We walked down towards the beach, Praia de Oura, and were amazed by the magnificent view.

[Max-fossils]

We then went to the left side, because the cliffs there looked nice. At first we were looking in the sand for fossils, in vain. All we could find were stones and seashells. As we then took a closer look at those weird cliffs, we noticed they were full of fossils! There were plenty of white traces in the cliffs, all corresponding to remnants of bivalves and urchins from the Miocene period.

 

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Unfortunately, we thought that the fossils were ready to be picked up (like at the Zandmotor), so we didn't bring a hammer... Which was really a mistake, because we were therefore unable to extract nice fossils from the soft stone. Luckily we managed to tear a few pieces apart with our fingers. 

After a really enjoyable walk through the fossiliferous cliffs, we decided to go back, which was a bit of a race against the tide, which was coming up rather fast. We stopped at a small restaurant on the beach to enjoy a delicious small lunch. While eating, there were some sneaky seagulls that tried to steal food out of people's plates, and it was hilarious!!! Paying the bill and giving a small tip for the great service, we then decided to take a walk on the right side, where the cliffs rose majestically over the waves crashing beneath them. There were less fossils there, but the scenery around us was absolutely stunning. Between the rough terrain of the cliffs, the wacky trees and the turquoise sea, all under a bright sunlight, we felt as if we were in paradise. 

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We finally went back to the car, and  decided the day was good. So as a conclusion, the Formação dos Olhos de Ãgua was a great fossil site for the eyes, but not that launch for keeping the fossils. Most of the fossils are deeply inside the cliff, and therefore even hard to extract with a hammer. Meaning that if you like to look at things more than keeping them, this site is for you!  As I said, our memories are better than our finds.

 

Anyways tanks for reading, and happy New Year 2017 to you all! May 2017 be another fossiliferous year for everyone!

[Max-fossils]

Here are the pictures of the finds. They are quite disappointing... So the fossils are fossil bivalves (mainly scallops) and echinoids. We also found some colorful stones.

 

Closeups coming

 

 

[Max-fossils]

Closeup #1: a nice small scallop

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Closeup #2: a small bivalve piece

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Closeup #3: a piece of urchin (or maybe coral? I'm not sure)

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Closeup #4: a tiny but pretty bivalve (sorry for bad quality pics)

[Max-fossils]

Anyways thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

 

Best regards and happy 2017,

 

Max

[sdsnl]

Happy new year and good luck fossil hunting! Nice trip, thanks for showing us

3 minutes ago, Max-fossils said:

Closeup #3: a piece of urchin (or maybe coral? I'm not sure)

 

It looks like urchin but the picture is blurry, if you can take a closeup picture of the holes, it should be apparent. If it is urchin you will see a smooth ball inside each hole, if coral there will be lines.

[ynot]

Sorry the finds were lacking, but at least You had a great trip.

Nice report too.

Tony

[belemniten]

Great report !

The pictures are nice ... now i want to go there (yes with a hammer )

And the finds ... they arent too bad ! The main thing is that you had a nice time with your family

Happy new Year ! 

[jpc]

Nice report.  Just goes to show that half the fun of fossiling is the act of getting out into Nature.  

[Max-fossils]

10 hours ago, sdsnl said:

Happy new year and good luck fossil hunting! Nice trip, thanks for showing us

 

It looks like urchin but the picture is blurry, if you can take a closeup picture of the holes, it should be apparent. If it is urchin you will see a smooth ball inside each hole, if coral there will be lines.

Thanks a lot! According to your judgement, I think it's urchin.

 

10 hours ago, ynot said:

Sorry the finds were lacking, but at least You had a great trip.

Nice report too.

Tony

I did! Thank you!

 

10 hours ago, belemniten said:

Great report !

The pictures are nice ... now i want to go there (yes with a hammer )

And the finds ... they arent too bad ! The main thing is that you had a nice time with your family

Happy new Year ! 

Thank you! Yes, I'm sure you'll like the trip! And of course, it's a lot better to make a trip with your family/friends instead of being alone...

10 hours ago, jpc said:

Nice report.  Just goes to show that half the fun of fossiling is the act of getting out into Nature.  

You got that exactly right! Thanks!

 

Best regards all,

 

Max

[Vieira]

Nice report.

 

Thanks for sharing your holidays and this fantastic pictures