Home Locations Location Tallinn, Estonia

Location added:
Last Update:

may 2007
may 2009

Location Description:

In the area around the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn, there are many places with small rocky outcrops. In the Ordovician limestones from Harju stage you can find fossils like trilobites. The limestone is quite hard, so you might need proper tools.

Fossils can be found almost everywhere. Watch fossils in the walls of the old city of Tallinn. Most buildings are made Lasnamägi limestone.

Note! Collection and export of Estonian fossils is prohibited!

Directions:

Various places like beaches and road cuts around Tallinn. In Lasnamägi there is also a quarry, where trilobites etc. can be found. The great limestone quarry is near Lasnamägi suburb, near the St. Petersburg road.

Also a good collecting place is a limestone cliff called Rocca Al Mare ("Rock in the sea") in the western part of the city. Orthoceras and Endoceras specimens are common.

Finds:

Mainly bryzoans, the cephalopods Endoceras sp. and Orthoceras, gastropods, cystoids, corals (Favosites sp.), receptaculites, and brachiopods.

Sometimes trilobites (i.e. Asaphus sp., Chasmops sp., Megalaspis sp., Cheirurus sp., and Illaenus sp.), crinoid segments, bivalves (Modiolopsis), fossil algae, and ostracods.

Trilobite Chasmops sp. found in the Tallinn harbour. 2 cm. © Photo: Olli Manninen

Cephalopod Endoceras sp. found in the Tallinn area. 15 cm.© Photo: Olli Manninen

Trilobite Asaphus sp. found in the Tallinn harbour. 3.2 cm. © Photo: Olli Manninen

Multiple Orthoceras found in Tallinn. About 10cm. © Photo: Olli Manninen

Brachiopods Obolus apollinis EICHWALD 1829 from the lower ordovician (AII, Tremadoc) found in Iru near Tallinn. © Photo: Jochen Aue and Elisabeth Rohrlack

Thanks to Olli Manninen for his part of this description.

Everybody using the fossil collecting location descriptions from this site has to respect the Collecting Rules!