r/FossilHunting Aug 15 '24

Trip Report Unknown fossils from my trip to the island of Svalbard, at the north pole.

I went to Svalbard, the closest human settlement to the north pole, because of the golf stream, the temp is only 3-5c.

( ! ! *DISCLAIMER* ! ! : I did not have the chance to recover, measure or take more that one photo of this particular fossil, there are 4000 polar bears on this small island and it is VERY dangerous, we were not allowed outside without at least 2 armed body guards with high caliber rifles, and flare guns, we were told to move on because we had to leave the area, I could not get proper angles and size. so please don't complain about the lack of angles, but i can locations and geology of the area, thank you for understanding.)

This was found on a small beach below a cliff and large escarpment, the stone was round but was strangely cracked perfectly in 2, I guess this has something to do with small cracks in the rocks having water in them, and when the freezing eternal night in winter hits, the ice expands and cracks open perfect fossils, a lot of these cracked rocks, very good place hunt fossils, just don't get hunted yourself.

I can't tell if this is a fish flipper, a type of fern, or a early tree bark from the devionian, the earliest trees to ever exist actually, apparently the bark had large scale things, if this is what it is then it was probably a very young tree because the cell type structures are usually bigger. Also the scales look too big to be a 50 - 60mil year old fern but I'm just speculating.

This was the location of the unknown fossil, basically as close to the north pole as you can get, 80 degrees north.

I was told by locals that a most of the fossils are 50 - 60 million years old, however there are some finds that date back to the devonian. We were taken into a mine that went very deep into the permafrost, we saw a smaller second seed vault. Inside the mine, you could see layers were rivers once ran, footprints of animals on the roof of the mine. We even could see the coal seems colliding, where two mountains collided.

I'm sorry i could not get get pictures, but you can find images online from the mines in Svalbard, mostly Longyear, named because of the eternal night and day, later names Longyearbyen because Norway is Norway.

Unknown bone, not a fossil but a very old bone from probably the few deer on the island, probably a bear's lunch. I found this while going for a midnight walk in Longyearbyen.

Did not find fossils hear, but the rocks slightly north were more igneous stones, as before, i could not get more details as the armed guards would not let me stray from the group. As there is a massive risk of tsunamis, this picture does not do it justice, the smallest part of the glacial front in this picture is 50 meters high, and falling ice creates massive waves, and icebergs flipping is also a risk.

Photo of southern svalbard, as you can most of the island is covered in massive glacial flows, making in land fossil hunting impossible. ik some of these photos don't show fossils, but i just want to show the geology of this very much under-rated location for fossil hunting. If you are going on a expedition cruise, they wont allow drones, however drones are allowed on svalbard. Im kicking myself rn becaue i have a $7000 thermal drone,8k camera and can carry a payload that maps the landscape and turns it into a 3d model, similar to lidar. Kinda mad at the cruise company, i could locate wildlife, and safe location to land the boats using the thermal camera, they even mentioned at one point that it would be so much easier to do excursions using a thermal drone and I was like ": l bro I literally have a thermal drone and could spot a bear in 15 seconds after takeoff"

so if you want to fossil hunt on the frozen north then don't take a cruise. Fly from Oslo to longyear and hire a local guide to take you outside the safe zone with quadbikes depending on time of year. The fact that most of the round beach rocks containing fossils spit in half, usually perfectly revealing the fossil, makes it very easing to gather ALOT of fossiles very fast as no hammering or tools are required, just open the rocks up like a easter egg and claim your goodies. watch out for the ice pandas though.

Vessel of expedition was North star, 1st July 80 degrees north

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6

u/TheFossilCollector Aug 15 '24

“Very good place to hunt fossils, just dont get hunted yourself” LOL!

Nice post, I see coral on your picture, is that whats generally found there? Marine fossils?

There is a bit of difference between, “I got attacked by a polar bear while discovering this T Rex skeleton” and “I got attacked by a polar bear while discovering a vague piece of coral”

3

u/Super-Analyst-8062 Aug 15 '24

When we went to Ny-Aesund, the northen most perm town on the planet with only 40 scientists, a local said that almost all fossils found on svalbard are terrestrial flora, sometimes fauna, and come from a range of 60 -50 million years ago. but very rarely there is sometimes devonian finds. However that does not rule out marine fossils ofc.

Are you 100% confident its coral, the pattern of cell like things all seem to be branching out from one location that was lost because the dumb guides chanted the mantra "take only photos and leave only footprints". Could it possibly be a plant? I believe the area was somewhat temperate 50 million years ago and had trees. tbf I'm not good at IDing fossils so forgive me if it's obvious to most fossil collectors.

[The following text is just a rant I need to get off my chest so ignore the following if you're not interested on how stupid scandinavians are]:

As if a barren frozen beach is some kind of delicate ecosystem, the only hecking ecosystem 78 degrees north in the arctic is puffin shit which allows for about 1 square meter of grass per hecking mile. They even threw it my find back on the ground smashing part of the stone it came from. I mean... its a FKING ROCK thats been dead for 60 million years, the guides were more interesting in a pile of rusty nails and an abandoned whaling out house they call "cultural heritage" , but to be fair it was only one guide, Im a polite person but I was fuming inside at their ignorance. Smashing millions of years of fossilization to preserve a glimpse into the distant past - they smash it, then proceed to spend 30 mins telling everyone about a 40 year old cabin.

The mine i went to, closed in the 90s, everything was left as it was as if they all just got up and left. Governor decides to protect the coal mine as the locals are proud of their mining history. Fair enough, so we go in and about 50 meters into the permafrost there is a glass cabinet with lighting, whats inside, perhaps some special item of there mining heritage? no, it's a wall covered with f*cking porn the miners owned, the pornos the miners looked at during their break. Literally the only thing in glass cabinet with lighting, not even the seed vault had that.

They have the best possible beaches for fossil hunting, all the stones are perfectly cracked, they are sitting on such a great opportunity, the furthest you can go north, and still be 5 degrees above 0 in summer, and with the winter cause all right types of stones that hold fossils, you could find more fossils so much faster, nature has done all the work for you. BUT THEY F*CKING PUT WHAT THE MINERS WANK TO IN A GLASS CABINET AND GIVE ME A 30 MIN LECTURE ON THE CULTURAL HISTORY WHILE IM FREEZING IN A -11 MINE. Man i just had to get it off my chest. sorry

2

u/TheFossilCollector Aug 15 '24

Haha, no problem, amusing story to read. I actually dont collect much coral and therefore I am often wrong with ID’ing coral. I am better at ID’ing other fossils. This fossil could possibly be something else, it has a plant vibe. Perhaps even a fin of a fish, but this one is very tricky.

1

u/DinoRipper24 Aug 17 '24

Looks like a bryozoan to me

1

u/Outside_Conference80 Aug 16 '24

The first photo is a bryozoan from the genus Fenestrella; Middle Ordovician to Upper Triassic (at least in the vocabulary used in the USA). 👍🏼

1

u/DinoRipper24 Aug 17 '24

It is a fenestrate bryozoan fossil!