Some recent Zandmotor finds

[Max-fossils]

Hey everyone!

Hope everyone's doing alright during this stressful situation!

I haven't been too active on TFF (or with fossils in general) the past few months (mostly due to school work), but with the whole virus situation I suddenly have some more free time. The Netherlands aren't currently under strict quarantine, but schools are closed, and we're firmly recommended to stay at home and forbidden to go out in groups of more than 3. But, luckily fossil hunting is still possible, so after a long winter hiatus I finally went back to the Zandmotor (last time was when I found that mammoth tooth in October!), not once, but twice (Tuesday 17th from 11 to 6, and Sunday 22nd from 2 to 4 about). Nothing very eventful happened during either of the trips, so I'm not gonna make a whole trip report, but just show you some nice location pictures and some of the most interesting or rarer finds.

What I will however mention is that the beach has changed a lot since the last time I was there, especially when considering where certain dunes, elevated parts or shell banks were located. In fact, the change between Tuesday and Sunday was impressive too. Crazy what wind and erosion are capable of!

 

 

[Max-fossils]

I love taking pictures of sunsets, and they're always nicer on the beach, so here you guys go  

 

[Max-fossils]

So, for the finds, before we start, as a quick reminder (or for those who don't see my Zandmotor posts often):

 - The shells are from the Eem Formation, in the Eemian stage of the late Pleistocene (130'000 to 115'000 years ago), unless stated otherwise

 - The fish material is also most likely also Eemian

 - The mammal stuff is usually from the last Ice Age (~ 40'000 years old)

 

Firstly, a pretty fun find, a Dosinia lupinus with 2 different traces of other lifeforms! The hole on the umbo is from a predatory gastropod (such as Euspira catena), and is probably its cause of death; and the carving on the bottom is a worm boring! I've found both of those types of traces on shells quite regularly before, but never on the same shell, and never on this uncommon species!

 

And here we have an Ostrea edulis with a very clear sign of bioimmuration --> this oyster grew next to another shell and had to adapt its shape to it!

[Max-fossils]

Here we have my biggest and best Euspira catena to date. It's still incomplete, but these are surprisingly hard to find complete as a fossil, especially at this size, so I'm quite happy with this one anyways. This is the species (along with others in its Naticidae family) responsible for those perfect holes you see in shells quite often (like the Dosinia above). They have some kind of very strong foot that allows them to drill a small hole in the shell of the prey, kill the animal inside, and suck the poor thing out of the shell and eat it. 

 

Here we have an incomplete specimen of the Pliocene Turritella incrassata with a Naticidae hole in it (probably not from Euspira catena but rather from Natica crassa, its Pliocene contemporary). Reworked specimens are not incredibly rare on the Zandmotor, but always fun to find!

 

Talking about reworked Turritellidae, here's a small piece of what seems to be a Turritella solanderi. This species is from the Eocene, so it's definitely cool to find it in such 'young' sediments as the Eemian!

[Max-fossils]

And another reworked specimen is this incomplete piece of Spinucella tetragona. In Pliocene sediments, where it normally belongs, this species is already quite uncommon, so I was definitely surprised to find this specimen on the Zandmotor! Very unexpected find but definitely welcome, one of my rarest shell finds so far I think  

 

Going back to the Eemian, here is a gorgeous Nassarius aff. goreensis I found. The species looks a lot like Nassarius goreensis from West-Africa, but appears distinct enough to be its own species (and it should get its own species name soon, hopefully). 

 

And here we have my first fossil Chamelea striatula (again with a Naticidae drill hole! ). Its modern counterpart is very common and often sun-bleached to a white color, so I was frustrated to never find a fossil specimen while always picking up modern ones thinking "Ah, finally!" but then discarding the specimen 2 seconds later... but, no more!  

[Max-fossils]

The last shell specimen I wanna show is this behemoth here. A Venericor planicosta! This reworked species is rather common in Eocene sediments, but in the Eemian sediments where I found it it's much rarer. Small, very worn fragmentary specimens are found from time to time, but this is my first specimen and it's definitely a really good one for the location, so I'm very proud of this find.  

(Oh, and those little holes all over the shell are sponge borings I believe)

[Max-fossils]

Onto the vertebrate material (which I know interests a lot more people on the forum)!

 

First thing we have here is what I believe to be an osteoderm of a sturgeon, but I'm really not sure. It kinda reminds me of a tiny croc osteoderm. I'll post more (and better) pictures in the Fossil ID thread     EDIT: here

 

Here we have the cleithrum of a codfish, Melanogrammus sp. 

 

And this here is the post-temporal bone of a fish, maybe also codfish

[Max-fossils]

Here we have 4 sea bream teeth; I hadn't found any on the Zandmotor before, then suddenly found 4 in one day! Quite weird... Either way, the big one with green coloration is pretty cool I find 

 

There's also here a partial sea bream jaw. Now what you have probably noticed is that none of the cavities in this little jaw seem to have possibly been able to support teeth of the size of those we see just above. That's because sea breams only have a couple of these teeth on each side of their jaw (and that would have been more to the front of the jaw I believe, so not visible on this partial jaw). These strong teeth are used mostly for crushing shells of mollusks or crabs I think. 

[Max-fossils]

Next we have a pretty cool ray tooth of I think Myliobatis sp., but I'm not sure if the species was still alive during the Eemian. Then again, it could very well be a Pliocene specimen, and the more I think about it the more I believe that it probably is a Pliocene Myliobatis.

 

Now this here is a pretty nice find, it's a jaw of a pike, Esox lucius! You can still clearly see a pointy tooth in the jaw, along with some broken ones. Quite happy with this one!

[Max-fossils]

To wrap up the vertebrates, here are 2 non-fish fossils that I was quite happy to find.

First a piece of turtle shell, and yes, we did have turtles here during the Pleistocene! The piece is very likely Eemian in age, as the temperature was quite a bit warmer then than now (and definitely warmer than during the Ice Ages!), so more suitable for a cold-blooded reptile. These things are rather uncommon, so definitely a fun find  

 

And then we have a nice big incisor of a mouse (Arvicolinae). The second picture is a closeup on the chewing surface (not that you do much chewing with an incisor, but you know what I mean )

[Max-fossils]

Lastly, another invertebrate find, but not a shell. Here's a cute fossil urchin, and I think that the species Echinocyamus pusillus (but that's coming from a guy with no knowledge whatsoever on urchins lol). 

 

 

So overall, the past couple hunts have definitely been successful, as some fun finds were made! No big mammal bones or teeth unfortunately, but a nice wealth of other fossils. The diversity of fossils at the Zandmotor continues to impress me each time I'm there! I'm gonna try to go back soon.

Anyways, thanks a lot for staying with me till the end (which means you probably didn't get bored from all of those shells in the beginning)! 

Hope you enjoyed this topic!  

Happy hunting,

 

Max

[Monica]

I love your little urchin, Max - it's adorable! 

[Max-fossils]

10 minutes ago, Monica said:

I love your little urchin, Max - it's adorable! 

Thanks Monica  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice finds, Max, quite the variety.

And some very interesting information added to each find too. 

[Max-fossils]

1 minute ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice finds, Max, quite the variety.

And some very interesting information added to each find too. 

Thanks Adam! Diverse finds indeed  

I explicitly chose finds on which I had something extra to say in this post; I found a bunch of other shells too but they're not new to my collection (some uncommon species still) and there wasn't much to say about them that I hadn't mentioned earlier. So I'm glad you appreciate this!

[Darktooth]

Nice report Max! You have great diversity in your finds. Congratulations for being able to get out.

[Darbi]

8 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

Here we have 4 sea bream teeth; I hadn't found any on the Zandmotor before, then suddenly found 4 in one day! Quite weird... Either way, the big one with green coloration is pretty cool I find 

 

I'm curious, how do you tell the difference between a sea bream tooth and a pebble?

[Coco]

Hi,

 

A picture of the underside of the teeth would help to understand

 

Coco

[Max-fossils]

10 hours ago, Darbi said:

I'm curious, how do you tell the difference between a sea bream tooth and a pebble?

Coco jumped ahead of me and already gave the correct answer:

They're round and pebble-like on the chewing surface, but slightly hollow on the underside. The ledge around it is quite distinctive. 

Hope this answers your question well  

[Coco]

Eh eh !

 

Coco

[Darbi]

3 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

Coco jumped ahead of me and already gave the correct answer:

They're round and pebble-like on the chewing surface, but slightly hollow on the underside. The ledge around it is quite distinctive. 

Hope this answers your question well  

Thank you! By the way, nice finds.

[Max-fossils]

15 minutes ago, Darbi said:

Thank you! By the way, nice finds.

You're welcome, and thanks!  

[Max-fossils]

On 3/31/2020 at 9:19 PM, Darktooth said:

Nice report Max! You have great diversity in your finds. Congratulations for being able to get out.

Thanks Dave, glad you like it  

I'm not sure I deserve congratulations for being outside of the house though