A little spot of heaven

[Max-fossils]

Hi all,

 

This Saturday was a long awaited day. It was meant to already happen 3 weekends earlier, but due to many different annoying factors (bad weather, last-minute activities, etc) we only got to do it later...

Luckily this gave me some more time to finish buidling my homemade sifter:

 

When a good day finally opened up for the hunt, we got all the equipment ready and packed the car. We then set off to our 1 1/2 hour road trip from The Hague till our final destination: a pit in the region of Antwerp, Belgium (*). We stopped after an hour of car ride in the village of Stabroek, in the north of Flanders. We went to this cute little restaurant called "Taverne de Neus" (translation: "Tavern the Nose", curious name). There we ate the real Belgian meal: garnalenkroket (search it up) with fries (this is, contrary to popular belief, a Belgian invention, and NOT French!). After having a full belly for the fossil hunting, we went back on the road and arrived at our final destination.

 

We parked our car, and just as we arrived, a young man (who works at the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam) and his mother were leaving the area. They told us that up in the pit there was a lovely couple searching there, and that they would be able to give us many tips for on our first hunt here. So we went there, and met them. Very generous, they told us exactly how to find what, and thanks to them we quickly found fossils on our own too! Shortly after a very nice French-speaking family, with two kids of about 6 and 8, arrived at the location too. It was only their second time here, and they too were happy to receive some advice from the more experienced couple. We had some great fossil-related talks all together, and I think we all learnt a lot from one another. 

 

Now back to the actual hunt: in the sand, it was easy to find many nice fossil seashells and some whale bone pieces, and with a bit of luck some small broken shark teeth. But the "real stuff" was found by sifting the thick dark-grey sand underneath the grass. We had to first dig a hole in the grass, until we encountered a harder and "crunchier" layer of sand. We had to take some of this, put it in the sifter and then shake. And Tadaa! Beautiful shark teeth! 

The thing was, our sifter was a hand-sifter. Therefore it takes up a lot more energy to sift, and it is done less efficiently. The couple that were there had a much more useful system: a sifter with a foot. It had a long foot underneath, stuck in the ground, which made shaking a lot easier, as the weight of the sifter didn't have to be carried. Also, as they could therefore afford a heavier sifter, they put two screens on each other. The first one only for bigger fossils, the second one to also keep the smaller ones. This made their job a lot easier. My sifter still worked just fine, and for a first one I think it's pretty decent!  

 

The couple, which were also very generous, were kind enough to give us some nice shark teeth too, in order to slightly broaden our haul. 

 

Here is the total haul: guess I can't complain for a first time!!!

On the far right, whale bone pieces. The three small black things under them are bivalve and gastropod steinkerns. Beneath those (middle-right) you have two concretions with scallops. Then all along the left side you have fossil seashells. Species include: Glycymeris, Laevastarte, Astarte, Natica, Cardites, Cyclocardia, Turitella, Nassarius, etc. Those shells are likely from the Pliocene. 

And finally, the things that might have caught your eye the most: shark teeth! Species include: Carcharodon, Carcharhinus, Isurus, Carcharoides, Notorhynchus, etc. Those shark teeth are usually from the Miocene-Pliocene, but some are from the Eocene. 

Here are the teeth that I got from the couple (so not personal finds; still very happy to have them!):

 

And here what are, in my opinion, the best personal finds:

 

Necklace shell (Natica sp. ?)

[Max-fossils]

A small but rather complete Turitella

 

A cute Nassarius sp. (still need to get the proper ID) 

A beautiful and big Cardites squamosa 

 

An awesome little Cyclocardia

[Max-fossils]

A nicely-sized and nearly complete (slightly worn and some feeding damage) shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus

 

A cool little well-preserved Carcharoides catticus

[Max-fossils]

And the best personal find of the day: a nearly complete (just a small part on the left missing one cusp) cow shark tooth Notorhynchus cepedianus! This being my favorite shark species, I was extremely happy when I saw this one lying in the sifter, and felt I had a voice creak shouting! 

 

So that about wraps up this awesome fossil day in the region of Antwerp! I came back home that evening, extremely glad that this promising location revealed itself as incredible as I hoped it would be? Collecting here was very different than hunting at the Zandmotor, my usual hunting spot. On the Zandmotor, it's usually a walk-n-pick up kind of hunting. But here, you stay more still in the same place, and scoop and sift all the time. Plus, here you needed a lot of equipment; for the Zandmotor all you need is a plastic bag to put your finds in. 

 

All in all this was an incredible day, which I enjoyed very much! I will surely go here more often, as this was a very pleasant experience. 

 

Thanks for reading my report, I hope you enjoyed it! 

 

Max

 

* I say "region of Antwerpen". This is because the hunters at the pit I was at prefer to keep their location "secret", so to make sure that there aren't hordes of other hunters that come and hunt here. Therefore I preserve the "intimacy" of the location by saying "region of Antwerpen; this whole city has sand pits in which shark teeth can be found. 

[ynot]

Nice finds and great trip report!

Thanks for taking Us along.

[Max-fossils]

6 hours ago, ynot said:

Nice finds and great trip report!

Thanks for taking Us along.

Thank you! 

[Monica]

Nice finds, Max!  I especially like the shells (I think my daughter's love of shells is beginning to rub off on me! ).  I'm glad you had a great day hunting!

 

Re: the meal you enjoyed - I think that I, too, would like it - is there anything better than something fried?!  (And if that fried item happens to have shrimp in it, then all the better!)

 

Monica

[Vieira]

Nice finds Max

 

Congratulations

[Max-fossils]

3 hours ago, Vieira said:

Nice finds Max

 

Congratulations

Thanks Filipe 

 

5 hours ago, Monica said:

Nice finds, Max!  I especially like the shells (I think my daughter's love of shells is beginning to rub off on me! ).  I'm glad you had a great day hunting!

 

Re: the meal you enjoyed - I think that I, too, would like it - is there anything better than something fried?!  (And if that fried item happens to have shrimp in it, then all the better!)

 

Monica

Thanks! I was actually happier to find the Cyclocardia and the Cardites than the big mako tooth, lol. Anyone else would prefer the shark tooth. Good to know that I'm not the only seashell fanatic!  I've been trying to spread my fossil seashell passion to other hunters, but everyone seems to prefer the shark teeth... That your daughter influenced you so easily, I'm jealous! 

 

About the food, seems like you googled it! Definitely not the healthiest thing, that's for sure. But hey: taste matters more! And this is something that the Belgians seem to have understood well! 

[Nimravis]

Great trip report Max and love the fossils. If you have pics of the actual area, those would be great to see. I would also like to see a pic of the material that you are sifting (pre-sift).

 

PS- that sifter looks really nice.

[Fossil-Hound]

Max excellent report. Cow shark teeth are not all that common. Congratulations on your finds. Keep it up. 

[Max-fossils]

2 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Great trip report Max and love the fossils. If you have pics of the actual area, those would be great to see. I would also like to see a pic of the material that you are sifting (pre-sift).

 

PS- that sifter looks really nice.

Thanks a lot Ralph!  I do have location pictures, but I rather not share them; the local collectors are scared that people might work out the location just by looking at the videos. A little crazy if you ask me, but those guys are as secretive as the mushroom collectors in France! Sorry... 

 

1 hour ago, Fossil-Hound said:

Max excellent report. Cow shark teeth are not all that common. Congratulations on your finds. Keep it up. 

Thank you Jason! If I'm not mistaken, I think that noto teeth are more common in Europe than in the US... Still rare finds nonetheless!

[belemniten]

Awesome finds and story ! Congrats  I love this location and the shark teeth you can find there !

[Max-fossils]

6 minutes ago, belemniten said:

Awesome finds and story ! Congrats  I love this location and the shark teeth you can find there !

Haha thanks a lot Sebastian! The shark teeth here are indeed quite cool 

[Nimravis]

2 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

Thanks a lot Ralph!  I do have location pictures, but I rather not share them; the local collectors are scared that people might work out the location just by looking at the videos. A little crazy if you ask me, but those guys are as secretive as the mushroom collectors in France! Sorry... 

 

Thank you Jason! If I'm not mistaken, I think that noto teeth are more common in Europe than in the US... Still rare finds nonetheless!

I understand.

[jcbshark]

Excellent finds, those are some sweet cow sharks you found there

[Max-fossils]

17 hours ago, jcbshark said:

Excellent finds, those are some sweet cow sharks you found there

Indeed, thanks!

[gigantoraptor]

On 25-9-2017 at 9:52 PM, Max-fossils said:

A nicely-sized and nearly complete (slightly worn and some feeding damage) shortfin mako Isurus oxirhynchus

 Do you mean 'Isurus oxyrinchus' instead of Isurus Oxirhynchus?

[Max-fossils]

36 minutes ago, gigantoraptor said:

 Do you mean 'Isurus oxyrinchus' instead of Isurus Oxirhynchus?

Yup, you're right. Good catch! I was just done with my chemistry homework, and the redox words were still stuck in my mind 

[JohnBrewer]

Nice finds Max. I do like your sifter. I use a garden soil sifter

[Max-fossils]

On 9/27/2017 at 8:54 PM, JohnBrewer said:

Nice finds Max. I do like your sifter. I use a garden soil sifter

Haha, as long as it works! 

Thanks!

 

(Oh, and sorry for the two-month late reply...)