Discovery and preparation of Campanile giganteum from Lutetian of Fleury-la-Rivière (France)

[Johan]

Hi everyone,

Last year I went on a one day fossil hunting trip to the Champagne region in France with a fossil hunting buddy of mine. We went to the well known locality of Fleury-la-Riviere, where Lutetian (Eocene) rocks are outcropping on the hillsides above the vineyards. 

 

 

 

We had a really good day, with lots of cool finds, among others a small but very nice Campanile giganteum. It was a lot of work to extract this gastropod in one piece, but it worked out nicely.

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Johan

[Johan]

 

after a few hours of hard work:

 

 

[Johan]

And finally the prepping and result:

[thair]

That is really nice. Worth the work I say

[Miocene_Mason]

Nice! Always wanted one of these, I have an uncle whose last name is Campanile.

[Ludwigia]

Beautiful specimen! Well done all round from excavation to preparation! Do you think you could slow down that photo series? I get dizzy just looking at it.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Excellent work. 

Well worth all the effort, it is beautiful. 

[Jeffrey P]

That looks like it was quite the job to excavate that specimen and prep it, but the end result is just stunning- absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations. 

[JohnBrewer]

Stunning!

[ynot]

Wonderful find! Well worth the effort to extract!

[Peat Burns]

Magnificent.  Well done!

I like how you prepped-out the other shells in the matrix, too.

[Ludwigia]

Just a couple of questions. I've heard of such artificially created sand caverns suddenly collapsing. How stable was this one? Did you take any safety measures?

[Johan]

10 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Do you think you could slow down that photo series? I get dizzy just looking at it.

Thanks for the compliments! Here is a slowed down version of the preparation gif. 

 

[Johan]

40 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Just a couple of questions. I've heard of such artificially created sand caverns suddenly collapsing. How stable was this one? Did you take any safety measures?

That's right, some of these caverns can be dangerous to work in. We choose a cavern that was already dug previously, that had rather stable walls, and predominantly dug down (so vertically instead of horizontally), to avoid the danger of creating a tunnel that can collapse. I never work in the really deep caverns that go down >1 meter into the wall horizontally. 

 

I actually collect all fossils in these deposits, not just the big ones, so for me it is OK to go home without any Campaniles. The people that dig the really deep (and dangerous) caverns are just going for those Campaniles. Since they mostly occur in 2 levels, these two levels are then excavated far into the wall, but this not my strategy at this site.

 

Cheers,

Johan

[Ludwigia]

26 minutes ago, Johan said:

Thanks for the compliments! Here is a slowed down version of the preparation gif.

 

Thanks. That's much better.

 

19 minutes ago, Johan said:

That's right, some of these caverns can be dangerous to work in. We choose a cavern that was already dug previously, that had rather stable walls, and predominantly dug down (so vertically instead of horizontally), to avoid the danger of creating a tunnel that can collapse. I never work in the really deep caverns that go down >1 meter into the wall horizontally. 

 

I actually collect all fossils in these deposits, not just the big ones, so for me it is OK to go home without any Campaniles. The people that dig the really deep (and dangerous) caverns are just going for those Campaniles. Since they mostly occur in 2 levels, these two levels are then excavated far into the wall, but this not my strategy at this site.

 

Cheers,

Johan

Wise of you. I was just a little concerned for your safety.

[RJB]

Love all the pictures.  Love this gastropod too.  Even have one of those.  Nice job.

 

RB

[Coco]

Hi,

 

On 30/03/2018 at 11:06 AM, Ludwigia said:

Wise of you. I was just a little concerned for your safety.

All right with that. To dig at the bottom of a cliff is badly seen, in any case in France. It is very dangerous and numerous places were closed to the search people for reasons of acccident. I would have liked not seeing this hole under the cliff...

 

Coco

 

[LordTrilobite]

That is one beautiful snail. Great job on the prep too!

[Sagebrush Steve]

On 3/30/2018 at 1:46 AM, Johan said:

That's right, some of these caverns can be dangerous to work in. We choose a cavern that was already dug previously, that had rather stable walls, and predominantly dug down (so vertically instead of horizontally), to avoid the danger of creating a tunnel that can collapse. I never work in the really deep caverns that go down >1 meter into the wall horizontally. 

 

I actually collect all fossils in these deposits, not just the big ones, so for me it is OK to go home without any Campaniles. The people that dig the really deep (and dangerous) caverns are just going for those Campaniles. Since they mostly occur in 2 levels, these two levels are then excavated far into the wall, but this not my strategy at this site.

 

Cheers,

Johan

Yes, like @Ludwigia, the first thing I thought was, “that looks dangerous.”  Glad to see you were being careful, and it was well worth the effort.  Nice job!

[jpc]

tres jolie.