Fossil Hunting today :)

dlofnep

So I popped down to Hook Head today to do a bit of fossil hunting for a few hours. Was absolutely beautiful out. Place is literally littered with fossils. Didn't have to walk far to find them. Got some brachiopod, bryzoan and coral fossils...

I took some quick snaps with my camera phone, but I'll be taking some high-quality macro shots with a friend's DSLR tomorrow to show some real detail. I'll upload them afterwards.

Brachiopod:


Also - I came across this one fossil, but it was too embedded in the rock - and I didn't want to hammer away at it and risk destroying it. It almost looks like a Trilobyte head - Could anyone identify it? It was approx 8 inches wide.

Wibbs

Looks like another brachiopod to me, albeit distorted in the fossilisation process. If you ever do find a trilobite in lower Carboniferous deposits kudos! They're rare. IIRC They had started to die out as a group by this time.

dlofnep

Yeah perhaps - Those shell ridges weren't visible when I was checking it out - the camera must have highlighted them better. It was the largest fossil there however. Those net-like marks appear to be Bryozoan? Not sure what the circular fossil above it is - perhaps coral?

dlofnep

Here are some high quality images of my fossils

Wibbs

dlofnep wrote: »

Yeah perhaps - Those shell ridges weren't visible when I was checking it out - the camera must have highlighted them better. It was the largest fossil there however. Those net-like marks appear to be Bryozoan? Not sure what the circular fossil above it is - perhaps coral?

Yea I'd reckon Bryozoans alright and the circular fossil, I'd reckon more likely a crinoid stem.

ManFromAtlantis

cool to all of the above.
my young fella has been asking can we go fossil/ ammonite? hunting. i thought he was mad, but reading here maybe hes not so crazy.
q: if we went to a beach in mayo (bertra between westport and louisburgh) for example , have we any chance of finding anything? and how do you go about looking . hope not a stupid question. thks

Galvasean

Nice finds dlofnep.
ManFromAtlantis, I don't know much about potential fossil sites in Mayo, but a geology head who posts here the odd time just might. I'll let him know about the thread.

dlofnep

Think there are some fossils in Bundoran.. Probably closest site I can think of to Mayo.

Guyett

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

cool to all of the above.
my young fella has been asking can we go fossil/ ammonite? hunting. i thought he was mad, but reading here maybe hes not so crazy.
q: if we went to a beach in mayo (bertra between westport and louisburgh) for example , have we any chance of finding anything? and how do you go about looking . hope not a stupid question. thks

There is a nice Carboniferous succession of rocks along the coast from the bay beside stella maris country house hotel. This is the bay to the west of Downpatrick Head
You can access directly on to the beach and just head to the north on the western side of the bay

The first unit of rock will not have many fossils initially but as you go further north you get some plant rich layers. The fossils here can be quite small but you will find a lot of them

Then there are massive beds of Limestone interbedded with calcareous mud and silt stones.
The beds of Limestone are very fossil rich with a lot of colonial corals and gastropods. There is even a bed of fossilised tree trunks that I found recently (these are towards the end of this rock succession, around the corner of the bay and around 200 meters north west) These were around 10-15 cm in diameter.

After this you get into a sandstone unit that is relatively free of fossils so I would suggest you turn back from here


fossilised tree trunks