Lower Cretaceous dig in Balve, Sauerland, Germany

[Libraraptor]

I was in Balve for the second time to help the LWL Museum of National History dig for dinosaurs and mammals.  On the so far hottest day of the year.  I will post a little essay here as soon as I have some time to do so. 

[PlesiosaurusNessy]

That looks after a very interesting day and very hard work, too, with this momentaneous exotic high temperatures in Germany around +40°C !

What did you dig out, which kind of dinosaur?

[Libraraptor]

So here´s the little essay I announced:

A year ago I asked German palaeontologist Dr. Achim Schwermann if I could sit in on his excavation. This would give me the chance to firstly satisfy my interest in the real deal of an excavation and secondly I would write a report on the dig in the magazine I am working for. It was a win-win situation. The museum would get positive public relation and I would get the chance to help real professionals and not just read books.
And so it happened.
A good relation between Achim and me developed over the year. He would occasionally send me information on their latest finds, we would ask each other how we are and so on.
This year I asked him if I could join the team for another day and he said "no problem".
In Balve they excavate cave fillings, lower cretaceous sediment in Devonian compact lime. During monsoon large rivers flowing northwards had carried, broken and dragged carcasses and skeletons of animals  who had died before or would drown living animals on their way to the sea. Also quite abundant in the deposits is coal from the frequent forest fires.
The sediment with those little bony nuggets would sediment on the floors of Karst caves along the way.
And that is exactly what they are excavating today. The cave eventually collapsed, earth crust movement would push the deposits upwards so nowadays they directly rest against the floor .
So we directly access and slowly dig through the seasons´ sediments.
Just like in Brilon-Nehden, where Dr. David Norman dug for Iguanodontids back in the 80s and which has a quite similar formation history, they find bones of Iguanodontids, crocodilians, turtles and occasionally even mammal jaws and teeth, which is the real highlight.
The biggest fragment I dug out yesterday was a narrow bone piece, approx. 3 cm long, which as a metacarpal probably belonged to an Iguanodontid.
It´s interesting and makes you feel abjectly when the outcome of five hours work is a hole of the size of an opened laptop, approx. just 7cm deep.
In fine layers we scrape the wet, loamy clay with a scraping tool , dry the fillings of many buckets in the sun, sodden it again and sift through.
Hard work indeed, but it´s worth all the effort.
It´s quite exhilarating to hold in your hand the tooth of a juvenile Iguanodon for example and become a piece of the world far back in time.
It´s even addictive and at the latest next year I´ll be with Achim and his team again.

[DinoToyCollector]

I can only imagine what it's like to be part of such an excavation. You manage to pull me in with your words. The temperatures at the moment is certainly very exhausting and working is probably a bit slower than it would be with 10 ° C less.
I have already seen some photos of you here and you always have your smile with you That's why I can well imagine that despite everything, you have a lot of fun.
It is nice to see that you are so dedicated to enriching our image of the prehistoric world in the Sauerland 

[Andanna]

Great essay.  That must have been a tremendous experience.

[ceratopsian]

Really interesting to read this.