Our First Fossils

[airborne1092]

I took my 4 year old son to a place near Holzmaden, Germany to collect a few fossils.

We had a great time, even though he and I both only lasted a few hours. It's supposed to be the hottest day so far in our region of Germany and the weather did not disappoint! The museum in Holzmaden has a decent sized pit to search or dig in, but we went instead to a place another town over, in Ohmden to the Ralph Kromer quarry (Schieferbruch.) Entrance was 2.50 Euro for me and 1.50 Euro for my son. While we were there, a tractor with a high-sided hay trailer came in and was filled up from a pile of tailings, then left. I suspect this was headed for the museum quarry as it looked (upon initial inspection) that there was no actual digging going on, just piles of shale for one to search through. Plus, I'm told you have to pay to rent tools at the museum site. Seemed to be a case of "Factory outlet" vice the "Retail store" going on here!

At the Kromer quarry, a hard looking, blue collar worker type simply handed me a 500g hammer and a couple chisels and stated in simple terms where we could dig and told us to stay away from the large machinery. When we were leaving, we passed this poor fellow, swinging a pretty good sized maul against a splitting wedge, sweating like crazy down in the pit. Anyhow, my son collected several small pieces, some partial while I was able to liberate three larger (I use this word in a relative sense!) pieces that I thought might look nice displayed. Of course, nothing ground breaking, but for the first time out I think we came out pretty fair. Here is a picture of the largest one, about 5 inches across, just after I drug the slab out and brushed it off. We look forward to going back when the weather cools off a bit; At writing, my wife informs me it's 36 centigrade - about 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

http://www.schieferbruch-kromer.de/english.html

Also, I found small nodules of what appeared to be pyrite, but it seems to have something to do with the meaty part or the organs of the larger shellfish we were finding. They were typically round and looked petrified, but always were in the area of the organs. Can anyone explain what this was? Perhaps the remains of the mineralization of whatever the shellfish had to eat before it died. I don't know, but I'm sure curious, and my son kept exclaiming "gold!" when he'd find or see one - which always nearly gave me a heart attack!

Enjoy!

 

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[Harry Pristis]

An interesting and well presented account of your outing, 'airborne'!

Is the ammonite just an impression, or will you be able to remove some matrix to expose a compressed shell? These Holzmaden ammonites can be quite decorative, and you've got a nice size there.

 

[ohio]

Cool post!

 

[naturegirl]

Very cool post 96 degrees IS hot, glad it didn't deter you. Thanks for telling this story.

 

[airborne1092]

Unfortunately, it's mostly an impression. I wasn't too rough (so I thought) when pulling out the slab of slate, and I found a few pieces of compressed shell that disintegrated rather quick. However, in the picture, the large piece on the south side of the ammonite is shell, but it's pretty fragile. I'd be interested in learning how to preserve it so it doesn't just fall away or rot(?) The other dozen or so shell fossils around it however, have matrix over them that can be removed. I'll try to get a picture of the other ones We pulled out. They're not as rough, but they are a bit smaller, more like silver dollar and half dollar sized. I'm pretty excited about it over all, I just don't want to screw them up with my first try at preservation!