"it Ain't Over Till The Fat Lady Sings...."

[Synechodus]

Yes, I know……. it has been quite a while since I last put in a trip report, shame on me. ;-)

Not that I have been idle the last year or so, but a major renovation of and addition to my home kept me from spending a lot of time on fossils.

Still, I did get to go out once in a while and on some of those occasions I even did pretty well, like on the most recent “father and son”-outing to the Belgian Cretaceous. But….. first a step back.

Most of you have been genuine fossil aficionados for the bigger part of their life, but those among you who came late to this wonderful hobby of ours or – like me - had the flame of their childhood hobby rekindled in their forties will surely recognize the feeling of awe when visiting the collecting of someone who has been collecting for what seems like ages to us late starters.

A couple of years ago, in one of my favorite quarries among those strewn across the Dutch and Belgian border I met this pensionado who has been collecting there for well over 40 years! At some point into the developing friendship, he invited me to his home to take a look at his collection and boy, what a collection it was!

One item in particular struck me; a flint-cast of the interior of a Hemipneustes oculatus in absolutely pristine condition.

Now you should know this echinoid is not only the biggest species to be collected around here, but also most fragile and rare. Hence, my awe when seeing this extraordinarily perfect specimen.

Needless to say, and - since I knew the odd stacked against me - against better judgment, the next couple of times I visited that quarry I always prayed to Lady Luck to grant me a specimen however meager in quality.

Also needless to say as time and visits to that particular quarry went by, I once more settled into the routine of looking for the regular stuff.

And so it was a couple of weeks ago. Taking a morning off from work, I took my son once more to hunt for fossils. In considering my options, I decided to go to this particular quarry once more, the more so since my son likes the Echinocorys echinoids to be found there.

Driving my car up to the top of the cliff face I noticed a large heap of several tons of flint, salvaged from the sands that lay on top of the chalk deposits.

Picture: The tons of flint, photographed on our way in. Little did I know what I would find there some 4 hours later, on my way out...

But, since my son wanted to find himself some Echinocorys, we bypassed that heap of flint as we walked to the top of the chalk deposists, looking for Echinocorys echinoids.

Picture: That's where we were headed first

We did find some of those, with my son finding the best specimen, but the rewards were kind’a meager. So we went over a ridge into a nearby quarry to check that out, but that turned out even worse.

Pictures: Find nr. 1 / Find nr. 1 in close-up / Find nr. 2 / Junior's best catch

A bit frustrated about having spent over an hour in the latter quarry without anything decent to show for it and having squandered much of the time I had reserved for visiting another quarry, a little further away, we went back to our car.

But…getting back to the car took so long that I started wondering whether visiting another quarry was worth it as we had only one hour left before we had to be home again. At that very moment I passed by that heap of flint again and told my son we better try our luck here rather than waste a lot of time relocating.

So I started rummaging among the tons of flint looking for the regular stuff like Diplodetus and Oolopygus with my son showing little interest. For this “heaps of stones”

At some point my son came to me while I was scavenging a remote section close to some bushes and told me he wanted to go home. I turned my head to tell him “Ok, let’s go home”, when I froze……

You know how it goes… at first you don’t even know why you stopped, a sign that you were stopped by a reflex, honed by years of looking for specific shapes. …. and then, lightning strikes as it dawns on you what you have just found.

The rest is history ….I said some words I dare not repeat here and took a picture first. No easy feat with my hands trembling the way they did. Then, with still trembling hands I picked up my prize…… a qood quality Hemipneustes oculatus, resting in a block of flint, grinning back at me.

Pictures: Ground shot / The Beauty and The Beast

So it shows once more: “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings” and mine sang loud and clear.

Cheers,

Paul

[Guest bmorefossil]

Nice man! I love when that happens I think I have found some of my best fossils like that, one day we even left the beach and I said wait let's go back, so we did and saw 7 people on the beach but 5 feet from the boat I found a nice meg that the wave uncovered for me LOL!

[Bill]

Great story and great find Paul. Well deserved. Jnr didn't do bad either.

[RJB]

Hey Paul. What a nice day that had to be for you. I can only imagine the excitement!!! Nice find!!! A question though. I see alot of fossils in flint on the UK form. Now im curious, what is flint and why does it form around fossils? Oh, and can you send me one of those oculatus. thanks. Ok, just kidding

RB

[Synechodus]

Hey Paul. What a nice day that had to be for you. I can only imagine the excitement!!! Nice find!!! A question though. I see alot of fossils in flint on the UK form. Now im curious, what is flint and why does it form around fossils? Oh, and can you send me one of those oculatus. thanks. Ok, just kidding

RB

Hi RJB,

It was one of those nicer days, indeed.

Certainly a day that makes all that time spent "in the field" worth while.

As to your 1st question:

Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and often has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in colour, typically white, and rough in texture. From a petrological point of view, "flint" refers specifically to the form of chert which occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Similarly, "common chert" (sometimes referred to simply as "chert") occurs in limestone.

Source: wikipedia / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint

As to your 2nd question:

The exact mode of formation of flint is not yet clear but it is thought that it occurs as a result of chemical changes in compressed sedimentary rock formations, during the process of diagenesis. One hypothesis is that a gelatinous material fills cavities in the sediment, such as holes bored by crustaceans or molluscs and that this becomes silicified. This theory certainly explains the complex shapes of flint nodules that are found. The source of dissolved silica in the porous media could arise from the spicules of silicious sponges.

Source: wikipedia / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint

On a personal note: I heard theories that a slightly acidic environment acts as a catalyst. Also, I find a lot of echinocorys echinoids covered by flint, mostly around cracks in the surface of the test. Maybe the outpour of (slightly acid) interior flesh/intestines of the echinoid acted as a catalyst too.

As to your 3rd question: nice try...

Cheers,

Paul

[barefootgirl]

Wow! Congrats on the find.

[Fred]

Paul,

Good find! I'm so very happy for you.

Man, that reminds me that I should join you again on one of these hunts.

[Auspex]

Congratulations on achieving a long-time goal, and thanks for sharing it so vividly!

[Synechodus]

Paul,

Good find! I'm so very happy for you.

Man, that reminds me that I should join you again on one of these hunts.

Hi Fred(erik),

You do that, you are welcome to hunt with me anytime and there is still plenty to find in the Dutch and Belgian Cretaceous as you can see.

Next time I'll go I'll drop you a line.

Speaking of Cretaceous .... first week of May my family and I will be staying along the French North Atlantic coast:

"Du pain, du vin et des oursins" all over again! ("Bread, wine and sea urchins" for those who don't speak French)

Can't wait to hit those French beaches once more and score me some Micrasters, oh yeah!

Cheers,

Paul

[MikeD]

Nice.

[raptorclaws]

Nice man! I love when that happens I think I have found some of my best fossils like that, one day we even left the beach and I said wait let's go back, so we did and saw 7 people on the beach but 5 feet from the boat I found a nice meg that the wave uncovered for me LOL!

Synechodus,

Thanks for sharing your discovery. Your enthusiasm is catching. Great finds are even better when they are rare happenings.

Bemorefossil: so true. I've found some of my favorite fossils either in the first few minutes or at the end of a day's fossil hunting. It might be because we're not looking in quite the same pattern and our brains are tuned to a different channel.

There's also no doubt that the angle of sunlight comes into play. There's a magical few minutes in our badlands when the sun is setting...the enamel of theropod teeth can reflect like glistening glass.

[Synechodus]

..... There's also no doubt that the angle of sunlight comes into play. There's a magical few minutes in our badlands when the sun is setting...the enamel of theropod teeth can reflect like glistening glass.

Without a doubt!

Some echs, especially the tiny ones like Salenias, are best spotted in the short moment just after a rising / just before a setting sun, when the rays of light are almost parallel to the soil. Must have something to do with the relatively low intensity of the light (spotting white echs among white chalk is no easy feat in the brilliant sun) and the angle of the light making the tiny echs cast more pronounced shadows.

Cheers,

Paul

[RJB]

Hey paul. Thank you very much for the information. I just got a rare echinoid in the mail from New Zealand yesterday. I will try and get a picture of it and post it later today.

RB

[Synechodus]

Hey paul. Thank you very much for the information. I just got a rare echinoid in the mail from New Zealand yesterday. I will try and get a picture of it and post it later today.

RB

I am all ears .....

Cheers,

Paul