Amazing hunt at the Banjaard

[Max-fossils]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm really late on this one, but better late than never! 

On the 6th of April I went to the Banjaard beach again, and although our hunt was short it was super interesting!

I started off by searching the coastline, where I found lots of bivalves such as Tridonta borealis, Mya truncata, Mytilus edulis, Arctica islandica, etc. 

After a while I went higher up the beach and started looking for the gastropod shell banks we had a lot of luck at last time. Unfortunately I didn't manage to find them... which tells me that the banks come and go, and that that previous hunt was just really lucky. However we got lucky again this time, by finding another type of shell bank!

This giant 'cloud' you see here yielded a crazy amount of smaller rare fossils!

[Max-fossils]

What makes the bank white is, as you can see here, the incredible amount of all those tiny Lacuna vincta shells. Mixed within are tons and tons of small bone pieces, small fossil shells, and other goodies. 

[Max-fossils]

In this one you can see a very nice Nucella lapillus on the left and a small Nassarius pygmaeus on the bottom-right (in black and white). There's also a tiny fossil Euspira catena shell in this picture too. Can you spot it? 

[Max-fossils]

Who can find the fossil Littorina littorea in this one?  

[Max-fossils]

Here are some location pictures. It's a very nice beach, and not many people on it. The people you see here are my grandparents, that tagged along for their first fossil hunt! They didn't find much unfortunately...

[Max-fossils]

Onto the finds we made! Just like I did for this Zandmotor hunt, I'm gonna show all the different species I found on the day! But before that I'm gonna show the different non-shell finds we made. Some very good stuff in here too!

 

Here's a partial mammal bone... I'll put it in the Fossil ID with more pictures, but if anyone recognizes it already feel free to identify this thing! It's from somewhere in the Neogene (likely Pleistocene, but possibly Pliocene). 

 

[Max-fossils]

And some more bones... ditto as the one right above. 

[Max-fossils]

Obviously we found a lot of fish vertebrae again, with a particular abundance of small ones this time. 

[Max-fossils]

Then this weird thing... I think it's some kind of bryozoan? The age is anything from early Eocene to present... (but Pleistocene being most likely)

[Max-fossils]

Also 3 fossil crab pincers, of 3 different species! From left to right: Cancer pagurus, Carcinus maenas, Maja brachydactyla. All from the Pliocene. These made me really happy!  

[Max-fossils]

And finally for the non-shell stuff, here are some Spirobranchus triqueter pieces. These are Pliocene too if I remember correctly.

[Max-fossils]

Now onto the shell stuff! Lots and lots of stuff here, so get ready!

 

1) Cerastoderma edule forma major, from the Eemian stage of the Late Pleistocene (about 120'000 years old)

[Max-fossils]

2) Corbicula cf fluminalis, a freshwater species from somewhere in the Pleistocene (maybe 400'000 years old). 

[Max-fossils]

3) Tridonta borealis, a coldwater species from probably the late Pleistocene (after the Eemian). 

[Max-fossils]

4) Spisula elliptica, from the Eemian

[Max-fossils]

5) Spisula subtruncata, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

6) Macoma balthica, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

7) A small piece of Ensis magnus, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

8) An incomplete Solen marginatus, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

9) An incomplete (but the most complete I've found so far) specimen of Mya truncata, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

10) A fragment of Zirfaea crispata, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

11) A small fragment of Modiolus modiolus, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

12) A hinge piece of Laevicardium oblongum crassum, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

13) Donax vittatus, Eemian

[Max-fossils]

14) A fragment of Angulus fabulus, Eemian (with a bit of jigsaw puzzling skills, the 3 pieces come together as one fragment)