Fossil Shops - Erfoud - Morocco

[Tidgy's Dad]

Day Two ; Locality Two (or Seven if you include Day One)

Prepping and Retail, Erfoud, Morocco. 

20th February 2019

 

Erfoud town itself is famous for its beautiful fossils, its skilled fossil preppers and also for its wide variety of fakes, composites, good and bad repair jobs and utter frankenfossils. 

A large percentage of fossils from Morocco that are available in shops and on the internet the world over originate from here or pass through the place. Fossils are sent here for prepping from all over the south and then sent from here everywhere in the country and abroad. 

There are many little shops, prepping centres with huge attached shops and 'museums which are really pretty much just shops as well.

Top Tip :The prices here are about ten times the price of the prices in the little shacks on the edge of town or elsewhere in Morocco, but haggling can reduce the cost significantly. Many places have 'fixed' prices, but they're actually always negotiable.

 

This time, we went to the one my friend Anouar, who is a tour guide, takes his tourists and I was asked politely not to accuse the owners and chap who'd show us around and do the chat, of having fakes or wrong info, so i had to bite my lip. We asked if it was okay to take photos and they said yes, which I was surprised about, but I guess it was because Anouar was going to use photos for his own purposes and this would involve advertising the shop. 

 

Top Tip : You will see a lot of fixed prices in Moroccan Dirham in the pieces and shelves. Divide by ten to have a price in US dollars. Because we were with Anouar, we were told everything is 50% of the marked price, but I suspect they often do this anyway, "Special Berber prices, today only". I've heard that before. And you can still haggle to get something way under that 50% and you just know they'll still be making a good profit. I didn't buy anything. Little local stores are more my line anyway - I rarely shop in supermarkets. 

 

Here is the entrance where you can see huge plates ready for prepping and polishing, some have been cut into pieces and they glued back together it seems to me, I know this happens with the crinoid beds, so i guess it's true of the orthocerid and goniatite stuff too. Some just look cobbled together because of the circular saw marks when cutting out upper layers.With these, polishing will remove the grid lines. These sheets are from the local area and contain the goniatites and orthoconic nautiloids we were walking on earlier, but from a better quality, less eroded and distorted source. Famennian, Upper Devonian, I think.

This photo shows one of the trenches they dig to reach the best quality material, similar to the ones i was walking along earlier this day :

Below, somebody walking on the slabs and some maps of the the world at different times in it's past, showing continental drift. :

Notice these are not the famous black orthocerid marbles that come from elsewhere. 

The picture of Spinosaurus is a bit misleading, as you all know, it's not found in these marbles or in the Erfoud area. In fact there is very little Kem Kem material available here these days, though there was in the past. I suspect the Kem Kem area probably has it's own facillities nowadays. 

 

 

 

 

   

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

 

The Protoceratops from Mongolia photo is just bizarre. Nothing of that ilk here at all. 

 

 

 

   

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This handsome fellow is suffering a bit with a bad back after his early morning exertions. 

And he has a Spinosaurus growing out of his favourite hat. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Somebody seems to have relieved themselves on the rocks! 

The shop guide confronted me.

"It wasn't me!" I protested. "It was probably wifey!".

Not really. 

The chap threw water over the rock, as is often done, so that you can see the fossils more clearly. 

Remembering my promise to be quiet, I pointed and asked the guide, "So, the Protoceratops come from over in the plain near the hills?" 

"Everything you see here is from Erfoud". 

I bit my tongue. 

You can see the ends of orthoconic nautiloids protruding from the rock. You split the rock where the layers of these occur.

Cut thin and rough polished :

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This is a darker coloured matrix and only seems to contain orthocerids and showing some degree of current alignment. This could be from near Rissani and is probably the black marble so often seen for sale, Upper Silurian, Middle Ludfordian  in age 421.3 to 418.7 mya, and thus without goniatites which hadn't evolved yet. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Most of the ammonites seen in Erfoud are from the Agadir area to the far west and are Cretaceous in age. 

But there are some from the Jurassic of the Middle Atlas to the North that are similarly preserved and much the same colour.

These are all genuine, but often have the centre whirls carved in too make them look 'nicer'. 

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

The crinoids are from the local beds, also dug out of trenches and pits. The dig a shaft down until they find the crinoid bed which is on the bottom of limestone layers and then dig a horizontal tunnel underneath it before knocking it off in pieces and then gluing the bits back together to make larger slabs.

Scyphocrintes elegans which seems to have been a floating crinoid, using a lobolith, so the stem and calyx hang down from this, not a stemmed sea bed form as shown here. Didn't see any loboliths here, so perhaps they don't know. 

The age is Upper Silurian, Late Pridoli to Lower Devonian, Lochkovian or 423 to 410.8 mya as confirmed by studies of conodonts.

The one piece on the wall is a composite, but the guy did say this, it's just for decoration.

Notice the bucket of water and stains on the walls where the specimens are splashed to show more of the details. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Gypsum is also found in thick layers in the Erfoud area. This is also collected and used to make decorative objects or sold to mineral collectors when cleaned up.

Note occasional orange bits that are found in much thinner layers. 

And the desert roses, here called "sand roses", found in many locations, so these are probably fairly local.

Nice to see they are next to the "stromatolites". 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

As I reported in my previous thread, these 'stromatolites' are actually a mineral formation formed by the evaporation of rich mineral water deposits on layered sandstones or quartzite.

Again here I am earlier that day with some in the sub-desert, the chap who owned this block was quite happy to explain how they were formed :

Because he had a lovely example of a genuine stromatolite section from near Ouarzazate, though they can be found elsewhere in Morocco too.

The mineralogical ones can be found in many locations in the sub-Sahara and Sahara, so on the net you will see them dated as anything from Pre-Cambrian to Cretaceous, as they are formed on the surface on top of other rocks.

Here is a specimen i purchased from Agadir when i believed they were stromatolites.

You can see where the deposits have formed on top of quartzite, and it is not layered like a true stromatolite when sectioned as here  :

And sometimes they form very geometric shapes, not like stromatolites, which also should be domed, not concave :

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

The place is huge with many areas where prepping is done and rocks are stored or displayed :

[Malcolmt]

Awesome pictures...... would be amazing to visit

[Tidgy's Dad]

28 minutes ago, Malcolmt said:

Awesome pictures...... would be amazing to visit

Indeed, it is amazing.

But also quite horrifying in places as shall be seen.

The workshops produce an endless stream of souvenirs, often from the local cephalopod beds, the grey brown ones, but also from the black 'orthoceras marble' mostly from the Rissani area. Nice coke bottle.  Their favourite product, it would seem.

These 'artistic sculptures' are not claiming to be anything but fossils embedded in cement. Shame as many of the fossils are lovely, but they have a billion of them, so have to find ever more creative ways of selling them ;

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

The chronstratigraphy is a little off...........

[Nimravis]

Nice pics and info Adam.

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Nice pics and info Adam.

Thanks, Ralph! 

Hmmmmm.......

Look at those trilobites...

Let's take a closer work near the prep bench for smaller items :

I'm very unsure as to the veracity of a lot of this. Many of the fossils are real, but pieces composited together.

All of the pieces on the bench seemed to be heavily restored, fake, composited or common species like Flexicalymene ouzregui, but then, as someone might pocket one, it's not surprising, probably just symbolic. 

I do love the big orthocone, though. 

And those trilobites.............

And note how with this big 'orthocerid marble' plate that the specimens don't cross the edges at the left or top or bottom, each one comes to a nice clean finish.

The crinoid plate. 

I'm pretty sure most of the crinoids are real. The plates are smashed to bits during extraction and then fitted together again. 

But some of these seem to fit together not very well, the pieces of stem don't cross over the break and where they do they seem raised and unbroken, almost as if they've been added on top of the main plate...........

Some of the pieces do go together, others don't, in my opinion. 

And the slab next door which I think is much better and even has what I think are a bunch of loboliths (floats) on the right hand side. 

I think this is a yummy piece. 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

As I have said, they use the local cephalopod beds (brownish or grey) and the 'Orthoceras Marble' (black) to make absolutely anything that sells.

Sinks and fountains. (we had a sink made from ' Orthoceras Marble' in our desert hotel room in Merzouga if you recall.) 

The Moroccans love fountains! Many houses, (riads)   have an indoor courtyard with a gardens, trees and a central fountain.

This table has a real margin, but the inner part, under glass, contains fossil set into a matrix.:

 

 

 

 

[caldigger]

So they actually do make them uncarved after all! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 hours ago, caldigger said:

So they actually do make them uncarved after all! 

Well, they are partly carved.

The top one on this table, though, is real and rather lovely.

Much nicer than the table, I would say! 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

The Composition Area? 

Polishing Section.

And then into the first showroom :

The chessboards don't seem to have any fossils in them. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

This is a super goniatite, polished, but nice. 

It's probably local, but that covers pretty much the whole Devonian, so I won't guess! 

Notice it's quite dark, but not as dark as the "Orthocerid Marble." But it's not the local brownish stuff either. 

This is from one of the other Devonian layers, not sure which one, but probably still from the Erfoud region. 

 

This stuff is found as decorative work all over Morocco and many other countries besides. it's the principal money earner for the region, all your flying trilobites and giant cephalopods are really just a sideline. 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Plates :

Never seen anyone using these! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

An anti-room to the main shop.

[Aurelius]

6 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

The crinoid plate. 

I'm pretty sure most of the crinoids are real. The plates are smashed to bits during extraction and then fitted together again. 

But some of these seem to fit together not very well, the pieces of stem don't cross over the break and where they do they seem raised and unbroken, almost as if they've been added on top of the main plate...........

Some of the pieces do go together, others don't, in my opinion. 

 

I'm suspicious that the vast majority of these plates are composited, rather than repaired. Even when they look quite convincing, you can turn them over and see that the pieces clearly never went together originally. But I suppose there must be some bigger ones out there.

[Malcolmt]

I continue to be in Awe

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

18 hours ago, Aurelius said:

 

I'm suspicious that the vast majority of these plates are composited, rather than repaired. Even when they look quite convincing, you can turn them over and see that the pieces clearly never went together originally. But I suppose there must be some bigger ones out there.

I quite agree. 

Or at least it's a mixture of the two. 

When they smash them out of the rock layer from inside the tunnel underneath it, it's not done with any delicacy. I find it quite odd that the crinoid calices themselves are rarely broken. Bits are broken and replaced and the jigsaw has many missing pieces. But you're also right in that one or two are pretty good. Another factor is that if they find a really nice one on its own it is sold singly  at a much higher price than the blocks get per calyx and so that space is filled by a lesser specimen. 

Top Tip : Always look at the back of these pieces, it's no surprise that they're broken and put back together, that's the way of it, but you can sometimes tell that the pieces don't match. However they often try to disguise this too by rough sanding/ polishing or using a putty to hide the joins.