Holzmaden Fossil Quarry

A little while back, some friends invited us to go fossil hunting in Holzmaden, about 30 minutes from Ulm.

This is what a 4-year old chooses to wear to dig for fossils!

There was a small exhibition area with fossils and dinosaur bones displayed, but since the informational plaques were in German, we didn't quite understand all the details provided.  

 

 The quarry was a sort of pit that was full of excavated shale from the Jurassic era, which is about 180 million years old.  For a small fee, we paid our entrance and rented hammers and chisels. 

It was blazing hot the day we went to do this, and standing in a pit of black rock made it feel like we were looking for fossils on the sun! 

Ryan wants to be a Paleontologist when he grows up, and I think he would have gladly stayed out in the heat all day chipping away at the rocks.  Meredith also had a great time, but she was traumatized when she developed, then popped a blister from hammering so much.

 

We mostly found lots of small ammonite fossils, but apparently some people have found some pretty impressive fossils in the area.  We ended up bringing home a box full of our findings, and Ryan was so excited to bring some in to show his class.

 

Ryan has asked when we can go back, and I think that this is definitely something we will do again.  I am so glad our friends invited us, because I probably never would have found this on my own. Next time I will make sure we go on a cooler day!