Landes,s-w France, Maestritchian fossils

[fifbrindacier]

This sunday i decided to make a little trip to the village of Dumes in the department of Landes to see its cliffs. Those are marly calcareous and karstic rocks from the Maestritchian :

1) I found little and big pieces that were oak leaf like, as this one :

And those other ones :

On each of them i found fragments of shell and things i think are orbitolinas :

2) I also found little shells like those ones :

(if the photos are too little or not precise enough to try out what it can be that doesn't matter for me)

Edited April 11, 2016 by fifbrindacier

[fifbrindacier]

3) I also found those two things and i wonder what they can be :

In the first, i see an oyster with calcite (but, maybe it is not an oyster) :

For the second, i have no idea :

I found all this at the feet of those cliffs in a quarter of hour, i saw a lot of inclusions (or nodules ?) on them, but it was a little dangerous to take them without a little protection. So, in the next days, i'll buy a helmet and i won't come back there alone.

Thanks to all of you.

Edited April 11, 2016 by fifbrindacier

[Guguita2104]

Hello!

I could be wrong, but I think your suposed oyster fossil is just mineral.

Regards,

Guguita

[fifbrindacier]

Hello!

I could be wrong, but I think your suposed oyster fossil is just mineral.

Regards,

Guguita

Yes i agree it just could be a mineral.

Regards.

[abyssunder]

In the first picture of 3),considering that it was found in a karst region, could be a cavity with botryoidal calcite. Put a drop of vinegar on a portion of the crystals and see if it fizz. If not, than is something else.

[fifbrindacier]

In the first picture of 3),considering that it was found in a karst region, could be a cavity with botryoidal calcite. Put a drop of vinegar on a portion of the crystals and see if it fizz. If not, than is something else.

It did fizz on the outside but i haven't see it fizzing inside. But maybe i haven't looked closely enough. I guess that botryoidal means like in french "grape shape".

Regards.

Edited April 11, 2016 by fifbrindacier

[Coco]

Botroïdal is that : https://www.google.fr/search?q=botryoidal&hl=fr&rlz=1T4GGNI_frFR526FR527&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnxaWh4ojMAhXBvRoKHUGLCZwQ_AUICSgC&biw=1600&bih=719

Coco

[fifbrindacier]

Thanks coco, they really have that shape.

[fifbrindacier]

This sunday i decided to make a little trip to the village of Dumes in the department of Landes to see its cliffs. Those are marly calcareous and karstic rocks from the Maestritchian :

dd7f7e949dcacfeeeaee610ac2cb91a0.jpgc3315e56acc12d9793114cfbaa63d663.jpg

1) I found little and big pieces that were oak leaf like, as this one :

P4112122.JPG

And those other ones : P4112109.JPG

On each of them i found fragments of shell and things i think are orbitolinas :

P4112113.JPGP4112114.JPGP4112123.JPG

2) I also found little shells like those ones :

P4112116.JPGP4112132.JPG

(if the photos are too little or not precise enough to try out what it can be that doesn't matter for me)

Hello, everybody. I found out more information about the place were i found those fossils :

1) : those oak leaf like pieces seem to be chalcedony very richs of big foraminifers : lepitorbitoides socialis and minor, clypeorbis mamillata (i think it might be the bigger one at the edge of the piece on the third photo).

2) : second photo : maybe a Hellenocyclina Broeckinella (it is hard to see it on a photo and i might be wrong).

3) : the first one : congratulations you all were right ! : it is a geode of silica ;

[fifbrindacier]

As for the second one of 3).... (photos taken after a little prep) , i have some ideas, with maybe a little foolish one :

In that formation, you can find urchins like echinocorys. This piece as a resemblance with a photo of an internal cast i found out on the web (i hope the photo will be big enough) :

But i see (i could be mistaken) more resemblance with a diodon tooth like the one you can see here (http://apbafossile.over-blog.com/tag/fossiles/4) found in the same department (Saint Martin d'Oney), lower Miocene ; or this other one : .

I know the geological age doesn't fit, but i have very clever theories : that formation seems to be delimited by a silty and marly formation from the eocene that forms a roof. At about 4 kilometers there are ypresian sandstones, and at the foot of the cliffs there is what appears to be resurgences of an underground source.

So, first very clever theory : the diodon tooth (if it is one) fell mechanically from the roof.

Second very clever theory : it was rolled out by a source that crossed eocene rocks.

Third very clever theory : a fossil hunter found it in Saint Martin d'Oney, went to that formation to find other fossils, it felt from his (her) trousers pocket (poor guy !) and i found it (lucky girl !) .

Edited April 13, 2016 by fifbrindacier

[fifbrindacier]

More seriously, i have found other photos of echinocorys on the net :

[caterpillar]

C'est bien un morceau d'Echinocorys, très commun dans le campanien-maastrichtien de la région

[fifbrindacier]

Ah, je m'en doutais un peu, merci caterpillar.