Back to childhood

[RuMert]

Hi all,

This is a report on my recent fossil hunting trip to Ulyanovsk region, Russia, inspired by the most interesting stories and pictures I read and looked up here. I took many photos myself in an attempt to convey the atmosphere. I dont think you know much about Russian fossil hunting spots, so I start with a short description of the place I visited.

Ulyanovsk Oblast (region) is located in the middle Volga basin and much of its territory is covered by a part of the Kuybyshev Reservoir (largest in Europe). Its sometimes called Kuybyshev sea and for a reason: with distance between coasts reaching 30-40 kilometres, unless the weather is super clear, the other coast is not visible. Add frequent stormy weather with high waves and the impression of a sea is almost complete.

 

Creating the reservoir lead to big scale soil erosion with prehistoric layers coming to surface. They are constantly washed away with fossils becoming available by simply walking along the shore. Basically all the western coast in the region is covered with late Jurassic-early Cretaceous deposits, mostly Kimmeridge clay (155 ma) with Hauterivian layers (130 ma). The fossils are good quality and do not require any preservation except the fact they are often pirytised thus subject to oxidation.

The place is (or was) very rich in sea fossils: ammonites, belemnites, reptile remains etc. They say at least 3 reptile genus and 20 species were recentlydescribed by the remains found here, for instance Undorosaurus (name derives from local village's name), Makhaira rossica, Luskhan etc.

Paleontology sections of three regional museums (Ulyanovsk, Tatarstan and Samara, with some going to Moscow) feature impressive exhibits taken from here including compete or almost complete sea reptile skeletons.

(You can see some of them here,  here and here). 

Unfortunately there have been too many guys looking for fossils and fine pieces of local yellow calcite to sell, passing like a vacuum cleaner picking up everything valuable from early spring to late autumn. By the way, a nature reserve (zakaznik on a regional scale, which itself is pretty weak) was created here in 1980s right to counter this situation, but with lack of effort it turned into a joke. The local village museum was charged with enforcing the reserve status - let's assume its management did not have the funds or personnel to prevent anybody from picking up fossils (not to assume they were picking them up themselves alongside the poachers without reporting them to the public). Anyway as a law-abiding citizen, I was collecting outside the reserve's boundaries. Here the fossil-rich shore is marked in green, the reserve in red and 3 main fossil-related villages in blue.

 

I used to spend vacations  in a local sanatorium as a schoolboy and accumulated quite a collection of local thingies ( I sure was fascinated by my findings and paleontology in general). In April I decided to spend there a couple of days again. The receptionist asked if I had been there before. Only in childhood, I replied. She laughed - nothing had changed since then. Well, I hoped so:)

 

[RuMert]

Its important to visit the place during low water (mostly Apri-May) - the sea levels you can see here, they should not exceed 51m. Otherwise the walk itself will be difficult due to high water and fallen trees.

[RuMert]

Thats how it looks with low sea level.

[RuMert]

Nobody collects belemnites

[RuMert]

In constrast, all good ammonites are already taken, only imprints left

[RuMert]

Many of them are big enough

 

[RuMert]

The shore

[RuMert]

Not very safe

[RuMert]

Kimmeridge clay sticks to your footwear

[RuMert]

The "sea" in storm

[RuMert]

Bits of the athmosphere. Emergency water supplies washed ashore

[RuMert]

Active wildlife: eagles flying, beavers swimming. First time I saw a really big beaver calmly doing something just 10 meters away. Unfortunately forgot to set phone to night picture mode

[RuMert]

There's also a paleovalley, so if you are after mammoths, horses and bisons, here they are

[RuMert]

Many strange concretions and minerals

[RuMert]

[Misha]

Я из Перми, 

У нас есть много ископаемых, но сейчас живу в Штатах, тут находил белемнитов, ракушек, рыб и так далее.

Иногда хочется вернуться и в будущем я всё-таки наверное так и сделаю.

Добро пожаловать на наш Форум!

[RuMert]

Famous local yellow calcite, very rare today as too many are after it. Looks like amber, used in a similar manner.

[RuMert]

Some of the findings

[RuMert]

[RuMert]

[RuMert]

[RuMert]

It looked at first as a big intact bone

 

[RuMert]

[RuMert]

Altogether 5 bags of fossils, 35 kg weight. Mostly reptile bone fragments and verts 

 

[RuMert]

Plesiosaur (?) humerus fragments, ichthyosaur vert