Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) My kid would have been content to play video games all summer long, but I took into consideration the fact that I'm not yet paying on braces, his car insurance, or college expenses, so it was about as good a time as any to show him that there is a whole interesting world beyond the computer screen. On that note, I planned a 1400 mile road trip through Germany and Czech Republic so that my wife, kid and I could build some quality memories imbibing the culture of western and central Europe. We landed Berlin, jumped in our Fahrfegnugen, and toured through Hannover, Hildesheim, Lutherland, Wuerzburg, Nuremberg, Karlovy Vary, Prague, and back to Berlin, taking in museums, architecture, war history, medieval history, museums, and food along the way. We also made a point of finally shaking hands with some online friends years in the making. My family wasn't initially aware that I'd be tucking 75 LBS of Texas fossils into their suitcases, but they were pleased to see me give most away early in the trip. And "by sheer coincidence", we ended up at some choice fossil sites along our route. Edited October 21, 2015 by Uncle Siphuncle Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Our first fossil stop was the Heidelberg Cement quarry at Misburg Nord, near Hannover, as site well known for its Campanian marine fossils. The primary objective of this leg of the trip was to finally a bunch of collecting friends in one place, and maybe find a few things. As it turned out, there had been little rain or quarry work in the best collecting areas recently, and 2 clubs had grazed the place over in recent weeks, so collecting conditions were sub par. There were still fossils to be had, by some more so than others...My son did exceedingly well. In fact, at one point he told me that I should just stop looking for echinoids and leave it to him (little weasel!). Although I picked up a few high capacity magazines worth of Belemnites, my echinoid finds were modest. I soon concluded that my purpose at the quarry was to hand off tons of Texas fossils to the German and Dutch boys. "The boys are back in town...spread the word around..." From left to right Michel, Gerrit-Jan Tijman, Paul Dols, The Itinerant Texan, Soenke Simonsen Edited October 21, 2015 by Uncle Siphuncle Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) My son Weston randomly kicked open a rock in the opening minutes of our search, and scored his prize of the day...a large, inflated, and perfect Micraster echinoid, perhaps M. glyphus. Edited October 22, 2015 by Uncle Siphuncle Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 More of The Kid's ech Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 The boy didn't stop there. In fact, he even found a rare Salenia echinoid, but then lost it through a hole in his bag. Weston's other finds...another M. glyphus, a (Eutrephoceras?) nautiloid, some Baculites ammonite sections, Gonioteuthis and Belemnitella belemnites The kid also scored a nice Porosphaera globularis sponge Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 My wife got in the act too. Her better finds are shown below. Belemnitella and Gonioteuthis belemnites, maybe a partial Nostoceras ammonite, a bivalve and a brachiopod Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 And now some more fossils, a mix of my scant personal finds, on site trades, and charitable donations by the other guys. Echinocorys echinoids, perhaps E. scutata A nice Micraster Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 More Micrasters...one sharing the matrix with a Baculites. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seaforth Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 That is awesome! Shame you didnt fit the land of cheese & windmills in your travels. I could have taken you to a cool trilobite fossil site right here in Amsterdam :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 2 Galerites echinoids left, not sure of the one on the right. Porosphaera sponges flanked in the center. The sponge shown below was a gift from Gerrit-Jan and "Struppi" (pronounced Shtroo-py) It was hard not to become fast friends with Struppi, shown below. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) And now, the ubiquitous belemnite, a fossil so common that it is often passed over in Germany, but something we don't find much of in Texas. We took some home, probably of the genera Actinocamax, Gonioteuthis, and Belemnitella. We scattered late afternoon. Some guys collected other sites on their way home, and we coaxed Paul into dining at a Brauerei with us. A splendid time was had by one and all. More sites to come! Edited October 21, 2015 by Uncle Siphuncle Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoWilliam Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Nice finds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belemniten Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) i live in germany and i was never in hannover for fossil collecting Thanks for this great incentive to visit this fossil location Edited October 21, 2015 by belemniten Many greetings from Germany ! Have a great time with many fossils Regards Sebastian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Sounds like a wonderful "vacation" for Y'All. Lots of great fossils too. Thanks for sharing. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 A couple of days later, my wife and son preferred to explore a quaint little Thuringian town while I dug into something new and different with another friend and guide, Thomas Billert. I have personally collected something cool from every period of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic and every epoch of the Cenozoic in my 13 years of serious collecting, but alas, my Triassic take to date included only petrified wood from Arizona. Texas has no Triassic marine surface exposures to speak of, so I chose to chase Ceratites while in Germany, something that simply cannot be found in the US. Ceratites were endemic to western Europe, mainly Germany and France, and might add a bit of exotic flair to my collection. Thomas and I spent a half day digging into a hillside of Obere Muschelkalk, repositioning ourselves to exploit any available shade as the sun cut its trajectory across the sky during another day of the record breaking German heat wave, which was only faintly cooler than South Texas. We were joined by a couple other cool guys, Peter Thieme and expert preparator Sebastian Brandt, and I believe we averaged about 10 Ceratites evolutus specimens each before I felt the tug of family responsibility, shook hands, and burned some diesel on the Autobahn to rejoin the family unit. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 My 2 best C. evolutus are pictured below. Prep was tough, as the rock to fossil interface is not always distinct. This seems like a venue where quantity of finds is required to turn up quality. I'm glad we experienced a satisfying amount of both. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 We took a couple days' break to explore Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, where Martin Luther hid for years during his persecution, walk through the Residenz in Wuerzburg, and explore the medieval charm of Nuremberg. Good thing I didn't have my hand sledge and chisel with me while walking past the university in Wuerzburg...... Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Our next fossil day was a double header with family cheerfully involved, kicking off the party at the Mistelgau Tongrube (clay pit) near Kalchreuth. This classic site has a somewhat questionable future in terms of collecting access. Long known for its pyritized ammonites, occasional Ichthyosaurier Wirbeln (verts) and "Belemnitenschlachtfeld" (belemnite battle field), my understanding is that the place is slated to become some sort of geopark, but funding hasn't yet been raised to make that happen. Apparently the 2 other small groups we saw collecting there also saw the window of opportunity as still open. As did the dirt bikers who like to jump the clay hills. Those same hills were choked with loose belemnites, and we took our share. No vert material came to hand in our 1-2 hour hunt, but my wife found a cool zone of little pyritized ammonites, and I spent a little time mining belemnite matrix slabs. Belemnites underfoot will trip you like needle bearings... My wife was the last one out of the site. Edited October 22, 2015 by Uncle Siphuncle Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 Best of our family take of ammonites, which still need ID. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Belemnites were the Fleisch und Kartofeln (meat and potatoes) of our haul..... Acrocoelites, I believe, as noted by the sharp tip Primarily Dactyloteuthis, if I'm not mistaken, as noted by the blunt tip Edited October 21, 2015 by Uncle Siphuncle Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 More belemnites....Acrocoelites and Dactyloteuthis One more site to come.... Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belemniten Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 i thought that fossil collecting in mistelgau isnt allowed anymore maybe ludwigia can say more Great finds Many greetings from Germany ! Have a great time with many fossils Regards Sebastian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) My son Weston randomly kicked open in the opening minutes of our search, and scored his prize of the day...a large, inflated, and perfect Micraster echinoid, perhaps M. glyphus. Kcamp Micraster glyphus Weston 1a Site 749 080115 (1).JPG Kcamp Micraster glyphus Weston 1b Site 749 080115.JPG Excellent Switzerland tee shirt on that boy. Oh, and there are fossils, too. Glad to see you made it back to the Motherland. And that you got into some Triassic, and Mistlegau... still on my bucket list across the pond. Edited October 21, 2015 by jpc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 (edited) Hi Dan. Sorry we had to miss each other this time around, but it's nice to see that you and yours have had a successful cultural and fossily trip! Did you try some of the great franconian bock beer while you were there? I really miss it over here in Swabia. The correct spelling for your vehicular pleasure is, by the way, "Fahrvergnügen" Glad you got to know some more of my Steinkern friends. They really are a great bunch of guys and gals. That bivalve in post #6 looks like a Spondylus dutempleanus. Maybe if you carefully abrade under it you'll discover its holdfast like on these here if you happen to have the right valve there: The little echinoid in post #10 may be Galerites vulgaris. That's also a nice Coeloptychium that Gerrit-Jan gave to you! And those ceratites are great! Mistelgau is sort of a gray area still until this gets cleared up about the biotope, so collectors still go in and nobody seems to bother them. Now I'm curious to see what you've still got to show. Edited October 21, 2015 by Ludwigia Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belemniten Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Ok thanks then maybe i will visit this location anytime ;-) Many greetings from Germany ! Have a great time with many fossils Regards Sebastian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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