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Hi all, This weekend, after the long, boring and annoying winter months (it's always mildly cold, but very windy and rainy in the Netherlands in winter... horrible fossil hunting conditions) spring finally let out the tip of its nose, with a nice sun, blue sky and decent temperature. About time! We all know what this means... time to do some fossil-hunting! So on Sunday morning I woke up, prepared my fossil hunting equipment (mainly bags and boxes; no tools needed for this beach), made myself a lunch, and set out at 13:00 to the bus. The bus ride to Kijkduin takes me about an hour, so I arrived at the beach at 14:06. But, as usual, because it's by bus I'm not dropped off at the ideal spot, so I have to walk about an hour on the beach, due south-west, to actually get to the Zandmotor. But that wasn't much of a problem... this part of the beach already has a few fossils to yield, although not as many, so you can start the fossil hunting right away. Didn't find anything significant though in that first stretch. You're literally walking on lots of Eemian fossil shells, but these species are all very common. Spisula solida, Cerastoderma edule, C. glaucum, and Macoma balthica are just not worth picking up, unless it's a specimen that stands out to me (unusual size, pathologies, weird colors, etc). Here's a map to better illustrate the places I will mention. Note that it's approximate. Also, the sand cliffs and the shell banks often move around, we are after all on a beach with lots of wind and water movement, so these positions aren't defined. But this is what was the case this weekend. And the pink Zandmotor "limit" isn't accurate either, it's more my view as in "this is good fossil-hunting territory". By the way, that red S is where the bus drops me off. Oh, and that big puddle in the middle of the beach is actually a very popular kite-surf spot, especially for amateurs because there are no waves. This time I started off the hunt at the "sand cliffs" as I like to call them, (2m tall at the highest point, so not real cliffs), then went on to an area more to the south of the Zandmotor (at the bottom of the dark blue line on the map). It was my first time properly hunting that little area, and it turns out it's actually a good spot, I found lots of good bivalve fossils there! After an hour or two I sat down to eat my lunch (yes, a very late lunch, but time flies by when you're fossil hunting! I'm actually still surprised I remembered to eat my lunch at all, I usually get so caught up in the hunt that I often just completely forget to eat my lunch at all ), then went onto the richest part of the Zandmotor when it comes to shells, the..... (drumroll please)............. shell banks! I know, very unexpected! The real Eemian shell banks are usually lying on the north-center of the Zandmotor, between the cliffs and the shoreline. That is when I made my two favorite finds of the day: a gorgeous Propebela turricula, and a bit later, Gari fervensis! After a total of about 5 hours hunting, I decided it was time to get back home, so I called it a day. But man was it a good day! I found an incredible diversity of fossil shells, especially bivalves. Onto some pictures, starting with some location pics.

Hi all, Last weekend, there was an excursion organized by the Paleobiologische Kring (a fossil club here in the Netherlands) on the Zandmotor. As you know I had already been quite a lot of times on the Zandmotor, because it is my usual spot. But seeing that a few of my contacts, namely a fossil friend I had met at a fair, Thijs, as well as the curator of the natural history museum in Rotterdam Bram Langeveld (that I know pretty well), were going to the trip, I decided to join in just for the fun of hunting with others. Turns out that was a really smart decision, because their company brought me a lot of luck! The day started off with a small lecture by Bram about the Zandmotor and the finds that can be made there. For most people it was their first time on the Zandmotor, so the lecture was pretty useful for them. Then after that, we went onto the beach to start finding some fossils ourselves. We went from the south side of the beach (Monster), whereas I usually always come from the north side (Kijkduin) as it is closer to my house. The weather was absolutely ideal for fossil hunting. Not cold, but not very warm either. Very little wind, blue sky, few clouds, perfect. During the trip, nearly everyone was looking for mammal (mammoth and other megafaunal Ice Age species) bones. I was, along with two or three others, the only one also looking for shells. As soon as I got onto the beach, I already found a nice partial Mactra glauca, a pretty rare species. A good start already! It didn't take long before some people found mammoth bone fragments. During the hunt, I talked quite a lot to other hunters, especially to Bram and the other shell hunter. Very interesting discussions, I learned a lot of new little details about shell identification. Meanwhile, I was finding some of the most incredible fossil shells! Species that would normally be a trip-maker I found several of, and some beyond-rare species also flashed under my eyes. It was unbelievable how much I was finding! At the end of the hunt, because we went back to the starting point (south side), after having said bye to the others, I had to walk all the way to the north side, so I spent some more time looking, and that revealed even more finds. I couldn't believe how much I was finding! The sun was setting at the time I just left the beach, and that's also when the clouds started to thicken: While walking along the bike path towards the parking where my dad was waiting to pick me up, I made one last very surprising and definitely fun find: a great mammal vertebra! Just laying there on the side of the bike path in plain view. It was pretty sun-bleached, so it must have sat there for quite some time. I was surprised that no one had noticed it before me, but didn't complain either. I suppose another hunter had found it and accidentally left it there? Regardless, it was a fantastic way to finish up this incredible hunt. Apart from the sunset pic above, I didn't take any location (or in-situ) pics during the hunt. If you want to see some more pictures (and finds) from this location you can search the forum for "Zandmotor"; this should bring up some results of the trip reports I've previously made of some of my hunts (I only make trip reports of my most successful/interesting ZM hunts).

Hi all, A handful of days ago there was a sand pile right in my neighborhood. Not sure why it was there, probably someone was making constructions to their house, but in any case I was happy. That's because that kind of sand comes straight from the North Sea, which is full of Eemian fossil sediments! So I took a little plastic bag and spent an hour or two looking in that pile of sand for fossils. The very common Eemian bivalves came up abundantly (so species like Mactra plistoneerlandica, Cerastoderma edule, C. glaucum, Macoma balthica, etc), but that is not what I was too excited about. Seeing that the sand pile was rather small, it forced me to focus on just that little pile. Which is great, because therefore I actually started looking much more closely, and hereby also collecting tiny micro-fossils! Lots of gastropods, which is awesome because these are not as common as bivalves in these sediments. I namely found a complete yet puny Anomia ephippium, some very small Cerastoderma's, and also the ones attached. I would love to be able to bring these down to species level. So I am asking for your help! The Hague, Netherlands (from North Sea sediments) Eem Formation Eemian, Pleistocene; 120'000 y Thanks in advance, Max #1: Looks a little bit like Macoma balthica, but still a bit different... Very likely from the Tellinidae