Hasle Beach - Bornholm, Denmark (Mid Jurassic fossils)

[Sauroniops]

Hello there fossil forum!

This post will actually contain some of my finds from 2 trips to the same location, namely the island of Bornholm in Denmark. I went there this summer, and made quite an interesting discovery, which I will get back to, and then went on yet another trip, which I got home from less than a week ago.

 

I doubt many of you know about it, unless you're Danish or have an interest in the geology of Denmark, but most of Denmark was underwater for pretty much all of the Mesozoic era. That is, of course, with the exception of Bornholm, which is a geologist's/paleontologist's/amateur fossil collector's dream. Denmark is not well known for any dinosaur fossils whatsoever, except from a few teeth found in the Robbedale Formation, and a bunch of foot-prints scattered along the west and south-coast of Bornholm. As recent as last year in April though, someone discovered the very first dinosaur bone in Denmark, at Hasle Beach, Bornholm. It's supposedly from a young sauropod, and is still being studied at this very moment. After I heard of the discovery, I desperately wanted to go to Bornholm. So I went there for 5 days in July, and 7 days in October, where the second time, I brought some of my friends from my heavy metal band along with me.

 

 

On the first trip, the very first day at Hasle Beach, I searched for about 5 hours along the beach, with not a single fossil in sight. Just as I was about to leave the beach to get something to eat, I stumbled upon a very odd looking rock. Which obviously wasn't a rock, it was a bone:

 

 

It measured about 6x5x6 (LxWxH) cm. I brought this into the museum located at the island, called "Naturbornholm", which is where a lot of the fossils found on the island are showcased. I had some of the people from the museum take a look at it, and they agreed on that this was definitely bone. What was very unlikely about this bone however, is that it looks like the end of a limb-bone, meaning it probably wasn't a plesiosaur, but something that was able to walk on land. In Denmark there's a law concerning fossils, saying that if the fossil could be valuable to science, it is obliged to deliver it to the Geological Institute of Copenhagen for research. The bone is currently being examined and studied. I still haven't received any new information regarding the bone. However they have said, that there's a good chance it's probably from either a crocodile, turtle or dinosaur. Whatever the species might be, it is most likely also a new species, as most of the bone material found at Hasle are plesiosaur bones. 

 

I went digging in the exact same area for the rest of the days, in hope of finding other bone-pieces. The picture below shows other pieces I found, which according to the museum, are bone fragments. Some of them are very worn though, and covered with conglomerate and iron. They are in no way as well preserved as the slightly worn bone piece I found on the first day:

 

 

 

Other than those, I found another piece of bone, however it is very hard to tell what it is from. I'm considering trying to open up the lump of sandstone, however the black layer of bone material is fragile. The picture quality might be bad on this one, but I can assure you, it is not coal or mineral:

 

 

So after the first trip to the island of Bornholm, I was invited over there by some of the people from the museum in the autumn holiday. I brought some of my bandmates with me as well, in an attempt to up the amount of fossils we'd find. And we did find a lot of stuff.

 

On the first day we started out slow. The guitarist from my band was the first person to find a fossil. He found a small tooth, which might be from a type of bony fish. We're currently talking with one of the paleontologists of the Geological Institute, who wants to have a look at it in person. It measures about 5 mm, and was cracked in half when found, but afterwards repaired.

 

 

The second day, we went out digging up on the more northern side of Hasle Beach, where the cliff is a bit taller. We didn't find much though. The other guys went back to the hut after a few hours, and I worked my way back to the spot where I had been digging during the summer. Shortly after, I found a small fragment of bone, most likely a rib-fragment. It's probably not from a plesiosaur though, as all the plesiosaur ribs found on the beach are usually very round, and not flat.

 

 

The next day, we all went to the museum, showing a few of the fossils we had found to the people we knew there. Other than that we took a look at all the awesome finds exhibited at the museum. Including 2 of the dromaeosauroides bornholmensis teeth found in the Robbedale Formation (1 of them was a replica though). 

 

 

Most of the dinosaur fossils found, as showcased by the museum, are trace-fossils. Dinosaur-tracks and coprolites, with the exception of the dromaeosaur teeth. However those are from the early cretaceous period (140 million years ago), while the place where we were digging, Hasle Beach (The Hasle Formation), is about 170-180 million years old. 

 

Later I went digging again the same day. Some of the others didn't feel like digging, so I went out alone. I searched in about the same area where I had found the bones last year, and got really lucky once again. First I found a nice jet-black hybodont shark tooth, measuring about 9 mm in length. Then a piece of fossil wood/branch shortly after. 2 hours after the last find, I decided to go back to the cabin we had rented not far from the beach, and once again I was super lucky, and then stumbled upon a large bone-piece! A plesiosaur paddlebone, measuring about 4x4x1 cm!

 

 

The fourth day, the other guys wanted to get back in the game after showing them the paddlebone.

 

The next day we found a couple of odd pieces, mostly shells, but also another tooth, this time it was a chimaera tooth.

 

 

 

On the fifth day, we went to a slightly different location, about 4 km further south of Hasle Beach, at a place called "The Pyrite Lake", where there's an abundance of plant-fossils, but there has also been found a couple of plesiosaur teeth there, as well as large dinosaur tracks. These tracks, as shown at the museum, are not negatives however, but a "positive". As in, when the creature made the track, the track was filled up with mud or another sediment later, basically making a 'positive' "sculpt" of the foot so to speak. 

 

At the Pyrite Lake, we found some huge chunks of fossil wood. Some a tad too heavy to carry around in a rucksack. We did however also spot a very interesting-looking rock, that shared a big resemblance to the dinosaur-tracks at the museum. We sent the coordinates of this rock to the people at the museum, and they're gonna send a paleontologist out to take a look at it at some point, to try and determine, if it is indeed a dinosaur track. So it's going to be interesting to see, if this truly was made by a prehistoric animal, or if this is just a very funny looking rock.

 

 

 

On the sixth, and last day of digging, we found a lot of odd looking fossils by Hasle Beach again, which we could not identify. One may have been a bigger, but crushed, hybodont tooth, trapped within a lump of sandstone. And another could be a rib or just some plant-material. Either way, we left a lot of the fossils at the museum, for them to take a look at, if any of it should hold any interest to them, or to the people of the Geological Institute of Copenhagen.

 

 

 

 

[Sauroniops]

(The other part of the post got a bit messed  up by the end of it somehow, so here's the end of the story/trip)

 

The seventh day, was spent up, on just getting back home with ferry, bus and train.

 

However, I then found something interesting, about 2 days after when unpacking my rucksack. In the larger room where I keep my hammers, chisels and tools, as well as a few larger fossils, I tried to sort out some of the random rocks we had been tossing down there. And among them, I find a large vertebrae, probably plesiosaur, just lying down there. None of us could remember picking it up or putting it in there. But oh well, it sure was a happy note to end the dig on, even though we were already at home  It has a bit of iron and sandstone left on it, which I am trying to scrape away at the moment.

 

 

So yea, I think that sums up the trips.

 

We are currently awaiting a lot of mails from the Geological Institute, about a good bunch of fossils. I think I forgot to mention it earlier, but fossils are scarce at Hasle Beach in general, and especially bone material, mainly because there's a lot of seaweed covering many of the rocks. There are thorny bushes by some of the good spots as well, where the cliff is low. And also a big load of beach grass, which can be very annoying. I came prepared though, with shovel as well gardening gloves to remove thorny debris, beach grass and seaweed  But if you have a keen eye when it comes to hunting fossils, which I know most of you definitely have, you should be more than capable at finding some nice bone-pieces here as well  

 

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Very nice report! Those are some really cool fossils

[Sauroniops]

3 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Very nice report! Those are some really cool fossils

Thank you! 

[Ludwigia]

It sounds and looks like your determination has paid off. And I'm sure that the people at the museum are pleased with your cooperation. Thanks for the report.

[Phevo]

Thanks for a detailed trip report

[Sauroniops]

1 hour ago, Phevo said:

Thanks for a detailed trip report

No problemo!

[Sauroniops]

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

It sounds and looks like your determination has paid off. And I'm sure that the people at the museum are pleased with your cooperation. Thanks for the report.

Yea hehe, well it's the only place in Denmark where you can actually find Jurassic fossils, not to mention that there's now the possibility to find dinosaur and plesiosaur fossils. There's not a lot of people who actually know, that the "Hasle Formation" is a thing. So usually, no one ever really gives the erroded sandstone at the beach a bash or two. So fossils may be scarce, but there aren't many who's looking for them either, hence why it was possible for me to gather this much material. It's all 'relatively new', and not very well documented. Which gives me that extra determination to try and find something cool! 

[Archie]

Thanks for a really interesting report! Brilliant finds I especially love the chimaera tooth!

[Sauroniops]

6 hours ago, Archie said:

Thanks for a really interesting report! Brilliant finds I especially love the chimaera tooth!

Thank you! And yea, the chimaera tooth is especially well preserved, and got really excited when I found it. Might have to send that tooth to the Geological Institute as well, as there's currently a study going on about chimaera teeth from Hasle. One paleontologist has already expressed his interest in taking a look at it. 

[Down under fossil hunter]

Well done mate.

gotta get back there and find a Dromie tooth next time 

[Sauroniops]

1 hour ago, Down under fossil hunter said:

Well done mate.

gotta get back there and find a Dromie tooth next time 

Thanks! 

And I'll try! However, the teeth were dug up in another formation on the island, which is currently private-owned. So in order to get permission to dig there, you can either take on one of the weekly trips with the museum, who has permission to dig there. But those trips last for 2 hours, where you only have 1 hour for digging, and you can only get there on a Tuesday or Friday. The other option, is if you happen to know the owner, or someone who does. I now know two people who's got permanent permit by the owner, so might go dig there next time, given I'm also permitted. It is very had to find stuff there, as it's all gravel and sand. 

[Troodon]

Thanks for the post nice finds and learned something did not know you can find early Cretaceous Dinosaur material in Denmark.  Very cool.

[Sauroniops]

2 hours ago, Troodon said:

Thanks for the post nice finds and learned something did not know you can find early Cretaceous Dinosaur material in Denmark.  Very cool.

Thanks!

And yeah, generally speaking, Denmark is in my opinion not very interesting regarding fossils. However that is probably just because my main interest is Mesozoic fossils, primarily dinosaurs and other reptiles. Even here in Denmark, we don't hear a lot about the things that collectors and geologists find at Bornholm from either the Jurassic or early Cretaceous sites. It's often kept a little 'secret' by the geologists for some reason. When I was there on the trip a little more than a week ago, I got a lot of new information about the sites myself, from the museum folk and the other collectors who dug with us the first day of the trip. But only about 10 percent of these finds are ever covered in articles on the internet or in the news. Apparently, there's actually a third jurassic dig-site on the island, which I didn't know of, cause it isn't really documented anywhere. A partial plesiosaur jaw was found there about 17 years back, as well as many other bones. There is a lot of new stuff popping up there, but the information gets delayed by the geologists, who apparently want to have their own 'private sites' so to speak, by just keeping it low and secret. But now that the very first dinosaur bone in Denmark has been found, I think it may trigger some more fossil-hunting action on the island. New species of crocs, chimaeras, sharks and turtles have popped up from the same beach I was digging at, during the last few years. What's also really interesting is, despite the Danish law regarding new fossils I explained in this report, someone apparently found a sauropod tooth at Hasle Beach, years back, but it wasn't taken in, because the tooth was too worn apparently. This didn't get any coverage in any article or in the news, except from a small 'nod' in an old scientific article, that's impossible to find anywhere. So there's a lot of interesting stuff just waiting to be found over there. 

[Darktooth]

Great finds and report! Thanks for sharing this with us!

[Sauroniops]

6 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Great finds and report! Thanks for sharing this with us!

Thanks! And no problem! 

Not a lot to read about Danish fossil-hunting in here, so I'll keep making these reports with all other upcoming digs  

[Sauroniops]

A LITTLE UPDATE:

 

The triangular black fossil from my first dig at Bornholm turns out to be bone. I cracked it open, and underneath all that hardened sandstone, there was a brown/black lump of bone, as well as something that almost looks like a tooth. I still haven't extracted the stuff from the sandstone, which is going to be hard, as I don't really have the tools for it. So I might send the bone to someone I know, and get them to do it for me.

 

Will share some pictures of the bone tomorrow!

[Johannes]

On 25.10.2019 at 4:05 PM, Sauroniops said:

Yea hehe, well it's the only place in Denmark where you can actually find Jurassic fossils

 There are Kimmeridgian rocks in northern Denmark, called "Skagerak-Geschiebe" with really nice mollusc-assemblages (including mother-of-pearl Ammonites). they are rare, but more common than vertebrate fossils at Hasle beach. You should give them a try, or did some jounger-rock cracking in the danish Moler Formation

 

Very impressive vertebrate fossils you have found on your island, you have a high possibility some are danekrae status (Is A.T.Nielsen still responsible for the danekrae commitee in Copenhagen?)... I was there several times, and found only one invertebrate danekrae in Bornholms Lower Cretaceous.

 

 

Best regards from the only large german city with a danish major!

 

Johannes

[Sauroniops]

9 minutes ago, Johannes said:

 There are Kimmeridgian rocks in northern Denmark, called "Skagerak-Geschiebe" with really nice mollusc-assemblages (including mother-of-pearl Ammonites). they are rare, but more common than vertebrate fossils at Hasle beach. You should give them a try, or did some jounger-rock cracking in the danish Moler Formation

 

Very impressive vertebrate fossils you have found on your island, you have a high possibility some are danekrae status (Is A.T.Nielsen still responsible for the danekrae commitee in Copenhagen?)... I was there several times, and found only one invertebrate danekrae in Bornholms Lower Cretaceous.

 

 

Best regards from the only large german city with a danish major!

 

Johannes

I have never heard of jurassic sediments in Jylland, could you possibly find some pictures or perhaps a map of where it is? It sounds very interesting. But then again, it's no wonder I haven't heard of it. I can never seem to find anything about Danish geology online 

 

And regarding the danekræ commitee, I think it is Bent Lindow and Jesper Milan who are responsible at this time. Currently the first bone I posted in here, is in possession of Bent Lindow. I don't think the other bones may be danekræ worthy, as there have been found similar plesiosaur bones, not many, but a substantial amount. There haven't really been found a lot of associated bones though, which is the biggest challenge to find. Only a partial paddle with a few paddlebones and limbbone have been found from plesiosaurs. I may have to send in the chimaera tooth to Jesper Milan however, as there's currently a study about the chimaera teeth from Hasle going on in both Denmark and England. Apparently the species may be related to an English species. 

[Johannes]

The kimmerdigian skagerak-glacial erratics (Hirtshalsgeschiebe) seem to originating in the Oslo Rift, there are not many pictures available in the internet. There is one publication: Wittern, A. (2008). Fossilien als Glazialgeschiebe in Norddeutschland III: Pern, Trias, Jura. EGMA-News, Jg.2008, H.1, S.10-17.

 

Some time ago I owned such a sample, but I gave it to a collector who is specialized zu jurassic glacial erratics. I asked him to take pictures, but things go slowly sometimes...