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Trip report: The Fantastic Fossils of Southern France
FossilLerp2 posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello everyone! This summer, me and my family went to the Provence, southern France. We were heading to the Baronnies and Carniol, a natural park in the Provence and a tiny village. This area is known for its Early-Cretaceous fossils. We went to four locations: Combe Reboul, , Le Mas, Bellegarde-en-Diois and Carniol. The first four are very close to each other, so I'll start with those. The First Area: la Charce La Charce is a small village in the Baronnies, and is located in the centre of all the fossil hunting sites of the area. Near the village lays Serre de l'Âne, a unique geological site. What it comes down to, is that it's basically a book of outcrops that accurately describes the transition from one stage (Valanginian) to another one (Hauterivian) for about 5 million years. Here's a website for more information: Website about Serre de l'Âne. SERRE DE L'ÂNE Pictures were taken by myself This site was used to be known for its beautiful fossils, but now it's closed for fossil hunting. However, the site itself is very nice and has a great picnic spot. It is truly magnificent to see the layers of limestone and marl like this. Anyways, since this site is closed for fossil hunting, we went to the gorge right next to it: Combe Reboul. The fossils from Combe Reboul are from the upper-Valanginian to Hauterivian, both stages of the lower Cretaceous epoch, so 130-140 ma years old. The marine fauna contained a ton of ammonites, so those are the fossils you find the most. COMBE REBOUL -- Pictures taken by me COMBE REBOUL This site is somewhat incredible, when we came across an exposed layer of limestone we found ammonites of multiple genera and belemnites and bivalves too. The most common ammonite to find here is from the genus Crioceratites, a heteromorph ammonite. (The inner spiral is disconnected from the outer spiral) It's just bizarre to realize that evolution had once created creatures that had beautiful shapes like this, and this isn't even the weirdest ammonite that is out there! FOSSILS OF COMBE REBOUL -- Pictures by me LE MAS Next to Combe Reboul is le Mas, another deposition. We didn't find a lot in this one, so I won't talk very long about this site. The fossils are from the upper-Valanginian stage, and again, mostly ammonites are found here. Weirdly, we didn't find any ammonites of the Crioceratites genus here. To find stuff here, you should walk along the path uphill and carefully look for fossils. You could go to the deposition north of the path, though I didn't have a lot of success there. LE MAS -- Picture was taken by me BELLEGARDE-EN-DIOIS We also went to Bellegarde-En-Diois, a small village north of La Charce. We found an exposed layer of limestone with many imprints of ammonites. They were very fragile, but we found some less fragile fossils too. This place and Col de Prémol (a tiny village just north of Bellegarde) are known for their beautiful pyrite ammonites, though we didn't find them. FURTHER INFORMATION At almost every mountain climbing trip we had this holiday, we found fossils. So even when you're not expecting them, just see if you can find anything if there's limestone laying around. For example, I found this ammonite of the genus Lytoceras on a random mountain where I didn't expect fossils: LYTOCERAS SPEC. -- Photo was taken by me I am currently working on a map of all the locations in the Baronnies (+Carniol) on Google Earth, here is a link, but it's still a WIP: https://earth.google.com/earth/d/16rC52Gd2tP5fKniCggfOEK0L3E4sV7zO?usp=sharing I've never been to most of these locations, so going there is at own risk. I found most of the locations in an old Dutch magazine from the nineties, so there could be nothing to find. Here's a download link to that DUTCH magazine: (PDF) Het Onder-Krijt van de Provence. GEA 21(1): 1-36, 7 plates, 32 figs. (researchgate.net) Some locations were found with Paleontica.org, here is a link to the specific page: Fossil Location Les Baronnies, France (paleontica.org) I will be releasing part II of this trip report soon (it's about Carniol, so you should read it) so stay tuned! MAP OF THE 3 MAIN LOCATIONS -- google earth -
Part of the upper jaw section of a nautilus, sometimes called a beak. This name is not a genus, but rather a term which has its origin in a diagnostic mistake in the nomenclature made by the early paleontologist D'Orbigny.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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- a111b
- karakaschiceras
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(and 2 more)
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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From the album: Cephalopods Worldwide
The largest measures 22mm. Pyritized. Lower Aptian, Gargasian, lower Cretaceous. From Opedette, Provence, France.-
- aptian
- eotetragonites
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(and 1 more)
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Pyritized phragmocone with pyrite crystals.
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- a93
- aconeceras
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(and 2 more)
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Pyritized phragmocone
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- a96
- phylloceras
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(and 2 more)
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From the album: Cephalopods Worldwide
3.5cm. Pyritesteinkern from Opedette, Provence, France. Upper Aptian, Gargasian, lower Cretaceous.-
- aptian
- dufrenoyia
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(and 1 more)
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Pyritized phragmocone.
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This is the first in a series of some of the pyritized ammonite fauna from the Provence in southern France which I'll be posting bit by bit over the next week or so. During a summer vacation a few years ago I spent 3 weeks walking, or sometimes climbing up and down the marly hillsides with my nose to the ground, checking out ravines and gullies on my hands and knees in search of these miniature jewels which regularly weather out of the clayey Early Cretaceous sediments. There are similar sites in the Jurassic, but they were too far away from our cottage. I visited exclusively sites in the Valanginian which, according to Kilian(1907-13), houses over 90 species, and in the Aptian, the age named after the locality Apt in the Provence. Practically all of these ammonites are mostly the inner whorls of the phragmocone, or at the most complete phragmocones of what in many cases were much larger creatures.