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Jurassic Walk

Explore changing paleo-environments of the Minette

As part of the “Geoheritage Days”, which will take place on the weekend of 4 and 5 September in the Natur- & Geopark Mëllerdall and in the Minett UNESCO Biosphere, we invite you on the 5th of September to join the “Jurassic Walk” at the Hutberg in Rumelange.

In 1867, a first mining concession was granted on this site, which was exploited for almost a hundred years. Besides the underground mines, the Hutberg was also exploited on the surface with open-cast mines.

Today, the impressive front of the mine can still be admired from afar, but it becomes even more exciting when you look at it closely and listen to the stories that this former open-cast mine has to tell.

Identical in appearance

Stones that may look identical at first glance often tell completely different stories. In very small areas, the Hutberg shows fluctuations in sea level in the Jurassic era, the age of the dinosaurs, and shows how the habitat of the Minett, which was a shallow tropical sea at the time, changed and evolved.

These subtle differences will be explained and demonstrated as part of the ‘Geological Heritage Days’ on September 5th. The changes that affected the habitat, and therefore the flora and fauna, of the Minett at that time will be revealed. Walking from the foot of the cliff to the pond, which is situated higher up in the old open-cast mine, there is plenty to discover and many fascinating stories to be told.

A journey through the history of the earth

During a ” Jurassic Walk “, which lasts about two hours, you will be able to take part in a journey through the history of the Earth, which will be proposed by Ben Thuy, palaeontologist of the ” National Museum of Natural History “. Ben Thuy, curator and coordinator of the paleontological section of the ‘naturmusée’, will explain the life of the Jurassic Minett with the help of many concrete illustrations that highlight the distant history of our region. Ben Thuy will show examples that can be seen with the naked eye, but which are nevertheless hidden to the majority of people who regularly walk through the former Hutberg open-cast mine.

Register now for the Jurassic Walk.

Find out more now

To learn more about life in the Minett during the Jurassic era, check out two interesting publications from the “National Museum of Natural History”. In 2015, volume 71 of the museum’s Ferrantia series dealt with life in the ocean covering our region at that time, and in 2020, the 83rd volume of the series took up the subject and expanded on it.

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