My First Ever Fossil Hunting Trip!

[SharkGuy94]

So today I went on my first ever fossil hunting trip, to an abandoned quarry called Hope Quarry near Castleton in Derbyshire, UK. I had no idea whether I would actually find anything or not, but I did find a few things of interest, and the quarry is huge, so in one day I only explored a small part of it. Here are some pictures of the quarry itself, and some of the fossils I found. I would recommend this place, as I am sure there are some fantastic fossils in there just waiting to be found, and I'll be heading back as soon as I can. It is so addictive, I could have stayed there all day and all night just searching.

Here is a picture I took when I arrived, before I made my way down into the quarry. Great view, just don't fall over the edge... haha!


Here is a picture taken at the bottom, poor quality because I rushed the shot and didn't put on my lens to filter out the glare of the sun. My bad!


And here are my fossil finds, if anyone could try to ID them, that would be a great help. With me being a newbie, I have no idea what they are, except for the obvious fossil shells I collected.

Fossil 1: A nice Brachiopod


Not sure what these 2 are, maybe poorly preserved crinoid stems, although they are much larger than any others I found at this site.


And here is my favourite find of the day, crinoid stems that are fairly well preserved, and I brought them home on a huge chunk of rock to display them in my room. Weighed a ton.


And finally, I found this large piece of rock with many fragmented Brachipods. I thought it looked quite cool, and was going to leave it behind, but decided to take it home with me anyway.


Hope you enjoyed the quick report, it was my first fossil hunting trip, the first of many I hope.

Cheers
Alex

Edited August 27, 2014 by SharkGuy94

[Auspex]

Well done, Alex. Looks like an interesting place to spend a day exploring!

[hashemdbouk]

those crinoid stems look great! cool finds for a first trip!

[RyanNREMTP]

Nice trip. Great report and finds.

[SharkGuy94]

Well done, Alex. Looks like an interesting place to spend a day exploring!

Thanks, it is a great place, I'm sure there are some really cool fossils to be found there, I'll have to get back there as soon as I can, hopefully this weekend and spend the whole day there.

those crinoid stems look great! cool finds for a first trip!

Thanks. I was happy when I found those, they were in relatively good condition compared to the others I found. As soon as I found them the trip was worth it.

Nice trip. Great report and finds.

Thank you!

[rejd]

Great report and congrats on your first trip. You will never forget your first time ! Thanks for sharing and you have some lovely fossils as well.

[JustPlainPetrified]

Wow, seems like you carried out a ton...trips like that are always worth the effort. Nice finds.

[SharkGuy94]

Great report and congrats on your first trip. You will never forget your first time ! Thanks for sharing and you have some lovely fossils as well.

Thanks, I was like a kid in a candy shop haha!

Wow, seems like you carried out a ton...trips like that are always worth the effort. Nice finds.

Sure did, was a steep climb out of the quarry with a lot of weight. I was actually holding the large rock in my hands, and fell. It went straight into my chest and cut me open pretty bad. Still worth it though haha!

[SharkGuy94]

I went back to the quarry today and found some more fossils, I spent around 3 hours there, so not too long. I haven't had time to clean them up yet, so they still look a little dirty and "fresh". Here are the pics!


Brachiopods:

Brachiopod number 1





Here are a few Brachiopods that were found loose on the ground


Here is a large Brachiopod. I split open the lime stone to reveal this one



Crinoids:







Here is the longest Crinoid I found