2024 Fossil hunting in Antwerp, Belgium

[automech]

A Happy Belated Birthday to you. Wonderful gifts!

[dries85]

Hey! 😄 went out for another river shore hunt on Saturday 3/16, no huge teeth this time but a nice variety of smaller teeth and other fossils. Here's my favorite finds..

 

First mammal tooth of the day..

 

Carcharias taurus in good condition.

 

C. hastalis with cool weathered patterns. Probably from the roots of plants.

 

Isurus oxyrinchus

 

Bovine tooth

 

A tiny Isurus retroflexus, i don't know if it's either juvenile or posterior..

 

A nice piece of coral, probably Flabellum tuberculatum.

 

At this point i actually met the guy who shared my spot, he told me 'no great finds today, just bits and pieces'. Instead of expressing my anger toward him, i said 'same here, there's defenitely better spots around 😏 good luck anyway'. Felt proud of myself for keeping calm, cause i really don't like what he did.. Anyway i continued my hunt and was pleased to still find some good stuff in the area he already covered.

 

Notorynchus sp. 

 

Lower C. hastalis.

 

Another mammal tooth..

 

The nicer hastalis of the day.

 

And a dolphin earbone, i think Delphinodon sp. (possibly Delphinodon dividum) periotic. @Shellseeker

 

And here's the whole lot cleaned up..

 

Thx for watching!

 

Dries

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dries85]

I also collected some of the most common shells, most are (Late) Pliocene of age. 

[Shellseeker]

3 hours ago, dries85 said:

And a dolphin earbone, i think Delphinodon sp. (possibly Delphinodon dividum) periotic. @Shellseeker

 

Thank you,  I have copied your photo of the earbone...

I have only ever found exactly ONE D. dividum tooth from Florida's Pliocene (and I am happy to have it.  Going hunting at 5 am  and Fossil club meeting tomorrow 6-10 pm... No time but will comment again...   Jack

[Gabi]

Oh wow, amazing finds. I have an 8 yo keen fossil hunter who dreams of going to Antwerp to find some shark teeth. We're based in the UK so don't know the area at all. Would you please kindly let me know the name of the place by the river where we could search? I'm trying to find it on Google maps and struggling:(

It's my son's birthday in few days and a trip to Antwerp  would be an amazing gift.

[dries85]

10 hours ago, Gabi said:

Oh wow, amazing finds. I have an 8 yo keen fossil hunter who dreams of going to Antwerp to find some shark teeth. We're based in the UK so don't know the area at all. Would you please kindly let me know the name of the place by the river where we could search? I'm trying to find it on Google maps and struggling:(

It's my son's birthday in few days and a trip to Antwerp  would be an amazing gift.

Hi Gabi,

I'm sorry, but honestly i'm not very keen on sharing 'my spot'. It took me a lot of time to find such a spot, i've actually already walked more than 40km of river banks, only occasionally coming across an interesting location. And it's basically not a safe place to go with little kids. 

If you really want to find shark teeth just get out and find your own spot. There's plenty of information on the internet..

 

Good luck and happy hunting!

[dries85]

Went out hunting the river shores again on friday 3/29. It had been a while cause i went on a trip to the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Eben-emael last week with the BVP (Belgian Paleontology Association). As it's not quite Antwerp, i might do a new thread about it. Also need some time to learn my Cretaceous 😅 so i don't make a fool out of myself..

Okay back to the river shores. I figured going on friday would be smart given the fact 'the other guy' always hunts in the weekends..

 

Started with some not so bad shark teeth..

 

followed up by some slightly better ones..

 

A nice C. hastalis

 

Then all of a sudden 3 mammal teeth and one shark tooth in less than a minute in between the bricks..

 

a good smaller hastalis

 

And the beauty of the day, fairly large C. hastalis lower antero-lateral with cool colors.

 

And to close off with another hastalis for the ugly worn collection..

 

And another mammal tooth with a complete root.

 

And here's the whole lot cleaned up.

 

And just cause this one really made my day..

 

Went out hunting today too, payed the 'father-in-law clay quarry' another visit so get ready for another trip report coming up 😉

 

[Balance]

Incredible day!! The color is so great. That’s the exact color of rusted metal before it changes from beautiful to scary. 😊

 

Jp

[dries85]

2 minutes ago, Balance said:

Incredible day!! The color is so great. That’s the exact color of rusted metal before it changes from beautiful to scary. 😊

 

Jp

Scary like the fiery eye of Mordor vibe i was getting? 

[Darktooth]

As a guy who loves sharkteeth you have been making some really nice finds. But I will say I really like those corals as well. Maybe because they are so different from what I find in New York.

[Doctor Mud]

Love this thread!

 

I like that great white you found. I love how things turn up like that sometimes. Curiosity is your best asset while fossil hunting I reckon. Looking at different areas and keeping an open mind. 

[dries85]

30 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

As a guy who loves sharkteeth you have been making some really nice finds. But I will say I really like those corals as well. Maybe because they are so different from what I find in New York.

Here's another cool solitary coral from the Antwerp Mio/Pliocene: Stephanophyllia nysti

3cm x 3cm x 1.8cm

 

And thx for enjoying 😉

 

Edited March 31 by dries85
Typo

[Doctor Mud]

45 minutes ago, dries85 said:

Here's another cool solitary coral from the Antwerp Mio/Pliocene: Stephanophyllia nysti

3cm x 3cm x 1.8cm

 

And thx for enjoying 😉

 

That is amazing! Apiece of art

[dries85]

It did take a bit longer than expected, but here's my Easter Sunday clay quarry Fossil hunt report.

Actually this locality is known by most shark teeth hunters for it's huge Miocene hastalis teeth. True, as i've also found my biggest hastalis teeth here, downside is the bad quality. Most teeth come without root or are just empty enamel, but if u find a complete specimen, it's often really nice.

Walking into the quarry looking for a promising spot to put up my sifter i already found these. All Carcharodon hastalis, as expected..

 

The spot where i found that last one would be my first sifting spot. With the right layer only 10cm below the surface it was easy shoveling, delivering some nice finds in the first hour. Actually even better than expected.

 

Here's a nice 5cm hastalis in the sifter, sticky wet sand tho..

 

My best Meg from this location so far, very fragile tho..

 

Then the soil got just too dense to sift because of the bulldozer tracks crossing the layer, time to look for another spot. Which wasn't that hard actually cause the bulldozers were also kind enough to provide a very large area with the fossils right under the surface. Great finds kept coming up, found a tiny Meg (either posterior or juvenile), a pretty good Carcharomodus escheri, a broken whale tooth and some good quality hastalis teeth as well as a decent load of broken bits and pieces (of which often damaged by my own shoveling i suppose).

 

Then this one popped up in the sifter...

 

Let's see 🤔 

 Nice big hastalis tooth, too bad i damaged the backside myself. Awesome find tho, guess u can't bake an omelet without breaking an egg..

 

And yet another nice large hastalis to close off the day.

 

Oh i also had a good friend who lives nearby coming to pay me a visit. He's not the fossil hunting type tho, but as an artist he's interested in well.. pretty much everything. He enjoyed the landscape and nature, collected some sand and stones, made some pretty cool photos (which i sadly can't show because they'd give away too much about the location) and i enjoyed his company and the chat.

 

After 6 hours of sifting my body said 'enough', i looked at my finds of the day and i agreed..

 

Great to see this spot actually kept it's promise... 

 

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

Always enjoy updates on this thread. 
we are blessed with many great fossils in this country, but not shark teeth deposits like these. Wow! 

[dries85]

Here's the whole lot cleaned up...

 

And some of my favorite finds.

[dries85]

15 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

Always enjoy updates on this thread. 
we are blessed with many great fossils in this country, but not shark teeth deposits like these. Wow! 

Thanks for enjoying and yeah i know we're blessed over here when it comes to shark teeth. Note that all these spots are at less than a 30 minute drive from my home, so i guess that's the reason i'm collecting shark teeth instead of let's say Carboniferous ferns (which would be an hour drive, Cretaceous Mosasaurs (1,5 hour drive) or Devonian trilobites (2 hour drive). Still amazing having that many different era's available at the surface in a country as tiny as Belgium.

 

So Neogene shark teeth are easy hunting for me, tho i do enjoy the occasional fossil hunt in these other areas as well, mostly with the Belgian paleontology clubs.

[Yoda]

@dries85

Those shark teeth look really good cleaned up. 

Nice finds 

[dries85]

Hey, i'm a bit behind with my posts, but 'luckily' i don't have much time to go out hunting either due to busy days at work...

Anyway here's part one of my report of a double fossil hunting trip i did on the 7th of april. I got up early to hunt the river shores at 7am and at 2pm i met up with a friend and his 8yo son in the clay quarry.

 

By the river shores i didn't start out that badly with this nice mammal tooth..

 

Followed up by a Raja clavata stingray spine..

 

But then finds came along slowly because of the wind from the North-west covered up most good gravel deposits with sand. Found some Carcharias taurus and mammal teeth tho..

 

then something i haven't found before, i was getting some kind of fossil fish jaw vibe, but can't seem to find any references. So please enlighten me of u know..

 

Another piece of Flabellum..

 

Worn hastalis and horse tooth..

 

first time from this location, a partial whale earbone..

 

A pathological mammal tooth (if that even exists?)

 

And to finish off with the biggest C. hastalis of the day, too bad it has a tiny chip off. Why are the damaged parts always hidden when u find them?

 

Overall not bad, not great, but interesting finds at least. And knowing that i was about to hit another spot afterward made me feel happy anyway 😁 Will do another post about the clay quarry as i haven't made any pics so far..

 

Here's my river shores finds put together tho.

[Balance]

Mystery kinda gives me dolphin tooth vibes 

 

Thats an “oh wow “ size tooth!

 

Jp

Edited April 16 by Balance

[dries85]

So this thing actually seems to be a cleithrum of some type of Neogene Haddock suffering from hyperostose, which tends to be fairly common for larger specimens. Probably Melanogrammus conjunctus.

 

As i learned from this interesting article. (Sorry, it's in Dutch but has some very clear pics)

Cranium_31-2_Oosterbaan.pdf

 

Always nice to learn something new 😀

[Shellseeker]

20 hours ago, dries85 said:

Always nice to learn something new 😀

Great Pictures in the pdf... I am pleased you managed to ID this fossil... 

[dries85]

Here's part 2 of my hunt on the 7th of april. I met up at 2pm with my friend Thomas and his 8yo son Bas at the clay quarry. After seeing last week's finds both were very convinced they we're going to dig up some nice megalodons 😏 I pointed them some good gravel spots close under the surface, put up my sifter and we started digging and sifting away. The first decent sized hastalis tooth goes to the kid and soon he finds his own first pieces of shark teeth. While Bas and I are sifting and digging Thomas tries making some drone shots of the location and us working our butts off.

 

He's a movie producer and editor professionally and just an our after arriving home he sent me an awesome 2 minute video with dito soundtrack 😀 Here's a part that doesn't give away too much of the locality..

 

At 5pm Thomas and Bas were pleased with the results of their hunt and they took off, no bags stuffed with Megs, but some pretty nice hastalis teeth. I kept going for a few hours and found myself some really pristine Carcharomodus escheri teeth, a huge and a really tiny Isurus retroflexus, an unexpected Carcharoides catticus and some decent sized hastalis teeth. No in situ photos tho, too busy sifting..

In the end i was encountered by someone i had seen dwelling around before. He seemed to be an artist making photos of landscape art he was making. He turned out to be really nice and very curious about what i was doing, so i eventually ended up modeling for the second time that day and gave him some shark teeth as well. We chatted about the history of these clay pits and the whole region that depended on them ever since the Romans started exploiting them till 50 years ago. When it turned dark it was time to head home and clean up the finds..

 

Favorite finds..

 

And the whole lot..

[dries85]

On Saturday 4/20 i went out hunting the clay quarry again as the low river tides don't match my schedule and the dredged piles in the port area are closed off because of bird breeding season. So more pinkish brown hastalis teeth for now, must get boring watching them, at least i'm having good fun hunting them.

I felt like taking it easy today, but the first shovel already delivered.. a nice C. hastalis tooth.

 

And with the first sifter not even properly filled up, the next one already turned up..

 

A nice half of a whale tooth

..

 

And eventually 6 hours later 'taking it easy' resulted in..

 

Pile of bones and burrows and a bag of teeth..

 

Together with a good pile of shark teeth, some of exceptionally good quality, i took home some verts. Actually there's a lot of boney material turning up, but often verts are the only recognizable pieces..

 

Afterward I took the time for making some pics of the locality.

The eroded Oligocene clay..

 

Eventually the bad bricks made of this clay end up back in the quarry, a bit surreal..

 

Septary.

 

Pyrite nodules in the clay..

 

And the obligatory surface find on the way out..

 

Here's the best teeth cleaned up..

 

And the complete haul..

 

Grtz,

Dries 

 

[Shellseeker]

2 hours ago, dries85 said:

A nice half of a whale tooth

..

I love Whale... Can you show us a washed version of this tooth and, do you know which whale ?

Thanks, Jack