Search the Community

Hi folks, Let me introduce myself. My name is anita and I'm from the Netherlands. Two weeks ago I went for a walk with my little son (he is facinated by fossils) at the ENCI-quarry in Maastricht, Netherlands. He has found a total of two "wierd" stones or fossils and we would like to know what they are. Fossil number 1) This stone had a wierd shape. We thought there might be a fossil in here. When I smashed it open at home there was a petrified ball in this stone? We found this stone along a marl/limestone quarry. Fossil number 2) It looks like there is an imprint of a fossil in this stone. Could this be a print of a piece of branch/wood or a belemnite? We found this stone on the footpath. One problem: of both fossils I do not know the geological era. We are very curious to hear your opinion Kind regards. PS, here is the link to a website about the ENCI area in English. Maybe this helps.

Hi, I would like to share some finds of the latest trip to the ENCI in Maastricht, the Netherlands. It has been some time since I shared a trip report. I always forget to take pictures of the in-situ finds. This time was not an exception. The finds are nice enough to share though. First a friend of mine and I went for a layer, we know contains small sea-urchins like Oolopygus pyriformis and Hemiaster prunella. I mostly found Oolopygus but also one Hemiaster I think. Most still need a good cleaning though. I also found Belemnites and some brachiopods but these are not in the pictures. The last picture is of Oolopygus in a chunk of flintstone. This was a fun find as three were clustered together. After checking this layer out for about an hour, We went to the Lichtenberg layer which is famous for a good chance of finding a lot of decent fish, shark and mosa teeth. My dad was checking out a part we digged at like a month ago and he was able to get decent chunks of this layer out of there. Sadly the teeth content was quite low. He got only a Pseudocorax affinis out and a shark vertebrae. Then he picked up a stone and the find of the day was found. It was part of a Saurocephalus woodwardii jaw. This is quite and impressive fish. We managed to get it out in three pieces which i had to glue back and prep out. I know these types of jaws to be extremely fragile so this was going to be quite a delicate operation. I sawed the block in two pieces, quite narrow to the bone, before I glued them back on the main block. This to ease the pressure on the jaw while scratching of the matrix. I am quite happy with the end result Close up: the next set of teeth was already present Regards, Arno

Hi, a few days ago I went on my first ever fossil hunting trip to Eben-Emael, a Limestone quarry in Belgium that dates to the Maastrichtian and is part from the type location (the historical ENCI quarry being only a 3,5 km to the north. The trip was orginized by the BVP (Belgische Vereniging voor Paleontologie) and a short report of the trip with phot's and some of the finds can be found in this topic by @Manticocerasman who I was lucky enough to tag along with, cause I doubt I would have found many mention worthy fossils without the guidance of Kevin. But since I am into microfossils I decided to collect some samples of the limestone without the obvious fossils home to later be able to look for microfossils as it should be quite rich. I think I have around 1 - 3 kg of matrix left to look for microfossils. But I have never myself dissolved matrix, and although it seems easy, I don't want to make any mistakes. During the trip they advised me on two different approaches, depending on what kind of fossils I wanted to find. One approach was dissolving in water and the other in vinegar, but now the seeming obvious question. How exactly do I do that? Should I just take a bucket of a glass, fill it halfway with said liquids and just wait? Or should I use a sieve and lay the block there so only fossils remain in the sieve and the rest goes to the buttom. Does the limestone just dissolve or does some kind of putty residu where the microfossils will be in? If so, how to properly remove the fossils when you pour out the liquids without pouring out the fossils? I know I have many questions and some might be very obvious and straigh-forward, but I really haven't done this before and I would like to do it the right way from start. So thanks in advance for any tips & tricks, I would really appreciate any help!

Hi everyone! After the recommendations of @Manticocerasman, @gigantoraptor & @Joeri_R I joined the BVP (Belgian Association for Paleontology). Today I got my confirmation mail of the membership. I have long been wanting to go out on fossil hunts especially in my own region which consist of cretaceous limestone from the Maastrichtian. Luckily for me the next fossil excursion planned by the BVP is a trip to the Romontbos quarry in Eben-Emael which is only a 20 - 25 minute drive for me. So I did sign up for said excursion but since it's my first ever fossil hunt I want to go prepared and I was wondering if any of you have any tips on what tools and stuff to take with me to the quarry and what tools are best for excavating said limestone. I already know that a safety helmet, safety gloves and a fluorescent jacket are required and that safety glasses and steeltipped working shoes are recommended. I was also planning on taking enough water to stay hydrated, a backpack and a good strong bag to transport excavated fossils and perhaps some matrix to examine later. And I was planning on purchasing this kit from my regular fossil shop. Are there any other tools or items that I should bring? Or does anyone have some tips for an inexperienced beginner? Or is anyone is familiar with the location feel free to share. Thank you in advance and I look forward to my first hunt!

Hi! I made a small visit to the Natural History Museum in Maastricht today to visit the new small exhibition named "Whale: Locality Maastricht" which centers around some Eocene whale bones from an undescribed whale found in the ENCI quarry in Maastricht. The exhibition explores further into the evolution of whales, it's a small exhibition but worth a visit if you haven't seen the museum or if you are really interested in whale evolution. Should any of our Dutch, Belgian & German members decide to visit (or international members who are in the area), then you should really grab a copy of the exhibition book. It is really cool and informative, it's only €2,50 but 125 pages long (both in dutch & english) and it covers the evolution of whales, the ENCI whale, modern whales & their biology and about whaling and whales in human history & myth. The exhibition book alone is well worth the visit in my opinion, I kinda compare it with the EOS magazine about Iguanodons & the book "Mammoths: ice age giants by Adrian Lister" but then about whales. So here are the photo's I made of the exhibition. The Exhibition Room: left: Metepocetus sp. neurocranium with preserved ear bones from Liessel in the Netherlands (Miocene) Right: Isoluted vertebrae of various whale species from Liessel in the Netherlands (Miocene) Isolated vertebrae of Eocene primordial whales (Archaeoceti) dredged from the buttom of the North Sea, for comparison with those of the "ENCI whale" Isolated vertebrae of Eocene primordial whales (Archaeoceti) dredged from the buttom of the North Sea, for comparison with those of the "ENCI whale" Smallest jaw: possibly Dorudon sp. from the late Eocene of Ad Dakhla in Morocco. Bigger jaw: possibly Pappocetus lugardi, from the middle Eocene of Ben Gueran in Morocco.

Hey all, I'd like to share om the finds of this year excursions to the quarry's 't Rooth and the ENCI. These are all late cretaceous, Maastrichtian finds. At one of the ENCI excursions i found a little jaw in the first stone i turned aside. It is probably a lower jaw of a sea turtle though this isn't confirmed yet. Suggestions to what it might be are of course welcome

Hey all, I collected a lot of micro shark and ray teeth over the years in the ENCI and i still have a few that i couldn't identify. Hopefully some can be put to a name. Thx in advance. Regards, Arno

Hello all, The new season has started in april already but i didn't have the time to share my finds with you all yet. Last saturday we went for the third trip to the ENCI quarry. This was a productive trip with a lot of nice finds mostly shark teeth though but also a nice mosasaur tooth, a partial enchodus jaw and some sea urchins. Which i will share in a few posts. The first trip was also quite productive though in sea urchins. Especially the Rhynchopygus marmini was nice to find as these are quite rare. The second trip was not as productive as the first and third trip but a nice mosasaur tooth made it still worth it. I hope you all will enjoy the pics and i will try to share more regularly in the future. The pics i will put in the next posts with the number of the trip. Regards, Arno

Hello all, I´ve found this tooth a year ago but i didn´t have the time to properly ID it. It was found in the ENCI quarry and is late cretaceous. I´ve so far ID it as a reptile tooth but i don´t think it is a mosasaur tooth atleast not one i´m familiar with. Any suggestions are welcome regards, Arno

Hey, I'd like to share some pics of the wonderful finds me and my dad did at the ENCI quarry 9th of august. It is a quarry of the late cretaceous time period (Maastrichtian) and we search there in a layer called the horizont of Lichtenberg. Normally you've got to work pretty hard for some nice finds but that day it was nicely digged free by the people who work there. A nice bonus! After a few small finds i stumbled on a piece of bone that at first looked small but after a closer look was about 8cm (3 inches) long. I got it out and got it in the box near by gear and searched further for some nice finds. Which were mostly awesome shark teeth and some sea urchins. After i got home i did some preparations on the finds and these are some of the results: