"carchaDOrias. In search of the treasures of the Earth" is currently sold in its original French version. English (we hope) will follow...

New cover !

In the news

Latest, we received the fifth test print of the project "carchaDOrias. In search of the treasures of the Earth". This version is fundamentally different from the previous ones by its hard covers and by a very significant improvement in its visual quality, particularly in the use of background photographs. More than a work on determining fossils, which has never been our motivation, this book aims to share a passion and its visual testimony in a very immersive perspective. In the coming months, we will study the possibilities and concrete methods of large-scale distribution, hoping that you will welcome it.

See you in 2024 !

To be published...

Spark your curiosity.

Arouse wonder, or even - who knows? - encourage vocations. This book is the culmination of a dream that was miraculously fulfilled. Written with the simple aim of sharing a passion, it recounts some highlights of the researches I carried out in the port of Antwerp as an amateur paleontologist. I chose them from thousands of photographs accumulated during my years of prospecting in the field, the digital camera, if not slung over my shoulder, at least always within immediate reach. Undertaken to try to see the contours of one of these ancient worlds which preceded the one in which we live, these expeditions allowed me to savor some extraordinary emotions. These were privileged moments of a pleasant feeling of intimacy, understanding and complicity with Nature, humbly trying to unravel some of its secrets. These were intense but fleeting moments, experienced most of the time alone although I was never very far from the excitement of a gigantic industrial site. From these picturesque adventures in search of traces of bygone times, the result was the harvest of several real gems, little treasures saved from oblivion as much as from merciless destruction. But in addition to these petrified remains of marine animals that I took from ephemeral sites now buried under concrete or asphalt, I am left with the modest visual testimony of their discovery in the sand. Through this original journey, I invite you to share my wish to bring fossils closer to their image.
My desire to associate, with the weight of bones, the "chic" of photos.

Excerpt from “carchaDOrias, in search of the treasures of the Earth” (currently in French, to be translated)

The fourth version : already fossilized...

It was almost ruined in advance...

On such an early morning in mid-November, pale and cold, knowing that my best chances of discovering fossil shark teeth in the “sands of Oorderen” supposed that the latter had first been copiously watered by the rains or swept away by the winds before my passage, contemplating this ground frozen by frost was a bad omen. Not only had the erosion usually caused by these two natural elements probably not produced the expected cleaning effects. But also because the sediments that spread out in front of me were covered with a thin layer of frost. It masked shapes and colors, and would make any identification of a fossil on their surface all the more difficult. As long as the latter deigns to surface sufficiently to be visible. However, having gotten up extremely early on Sunday and having traveled a good hundred kilometers from my home, I could not decently give up without trying my luck. Simply throwing in the towel to go home was not at all my habit, and therefore out of the question! Abandoning the car in a discreet little wood, far enough from my objective so that it did not attract too much attention, I went to this vast plain which had for several months already been the source of all my hopes of amateur. I had started to survey it, methodically but with very relative conviction.
Until…

Somewhere in the port of Antwerp (Belgium)...

Read more in “carchaDOrias. In search of the treasures of the Earth” (to be published)v

The raider of the Lost Root...

A simple question of priorities.

Of course Paleoman, a well-known Belgian collector, had praised to me the merits of a minerals and fossils exchange which was to be held at the weekend in the Flemish region. But this type of crowd demonstration attracted me only very moderately. Failing for me to buy pieces found by others, only the atmosphere and the prospect of obtaining small equipment could interest me. But a few tools for clearing specimens or metal displays were not enough to justify the trip, even though I had not deigned to go to the annual fair organized in the capital Brussels, three months earlier. So I decided to make another attempt to get out, even if it meant risking a serious cold. But I had meticulously planned everything: the fleece sweater and the t-shirt spread out in front of the heater during the night, the k-way dried and rolled up in its usual packaging, without neglecting the reserve batteries for “Mister Fuji”, my camera digital. Everything I needed had been neatly arranged, in plain sight, near the car keys. Often, my expeditions resembled a real commando operation. It was a well-oiled machine resulting from the experience of more than a decade of prospecting in the port of Antwerp. With these preparations, I was mentally prepared to face any atmospheric condition, as long as it remained a notch below hurricane, sudden glaciation or a second Flood. What's more, it was Saint Nicholas' Day, when I had no doubt that I had been a very good child !

It felt like the discovery of the year…

Read more in “carchaDOrias. In search of the treasures of the Earth” (to be published)

“Very violent” winds.
The latest weather forecasts were clear: the storm Xynthia, which was raging across Europe, was going to hit the country hardest on Sunday morning. But as I often said to anyone who would listen, I naturally nourished a strong spirit of contradiction. Not that I didn't like to act like everyone else, but because I preferred not to act like everyone else. All the good reasons, then, to resist all elementary caution and rush, at dawn, towards the port of Antwerp. My new research area became more and more impressive over the weeks. Worrying, at the least...

Short story of a great find

Reviewing the very short distance which separated the precise location of this discovery and the traces of the passage of a large construction machine, it seems obvious that it would have taken barely a few centimeters for this exceptional specimen to be irremediably lost to Posterity. That it was, at the very least, slightly sunk and made invisible in the sediments or, at worst, broken or even totally pulverized by the weight of this modern-day behemoth. To this little miracle that is already fossilization as such, was added that day a conjunction of favorable circumstances which attests that the happiness of an amateur or professional paleontologist ultimately depends on very, very little things...

Read more in “Carchadorias. In search of the treasures of the Earth” (to be published)

Carcharodon carcharias, fossil great white shark, inferior tooth, Upper Pliocene, Antwerp, Belgium

A "museum piece".

I was coming out of an extremely rare paleontological experience. The kind of discovery that, according to a friend and famous collector, only happens “once in a lifetime.” Storm or not, I had to make the most of this terrain that the unpredictable transformations of the port of Antwerp had suddenly offered to my prospecting needs. As long as it remains accessible. Always taking advantage of extremely early arrivals, I was going to collect a few weeks later another memorable fossil, this time in the form of a Great White Shark lower tooth.

Read more in “carchaDOrias. In search of the treasures of the Earth” (to be published)

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