Dr. John Jagt
John.Jagt@maastricht.nl
Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht
Saturday, 30th of November 2019 (11:45-12:15) at the international symposium on Chalk & Flint
Amongst Campanian and Maastrichtian fossils from the extended type area of the Maastrichtian Stage, around Maastricht, those with a backbone have always played a pivotal role in collecting efforts by professional and amateur palaeontologists alike. Just consider mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, crocodiles, sharks, fish and even the odd dinosaur …..
And what about all those other, spineless goodies? Echinoids are popular amongst collectors, especially ‘regular’ ones and the typical Maastricht ‘chalk apple’, Hemipneustes striatoradiatus. But: there is more ….. much more. Crawling, swimming (occasionally), burrowing, boring and cementing animals, representing a wide array of biotic groups, littered the sea floor, while squids hovered through the water column. During recent years, numerous interesting specimens of bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods and crustaceans have been recovered. A selection of these will be illustrated and briefly discussed. Added are examples of trace fossil taxa and a few marine and terrestrial plants.
The message to take home could be: even after 250+ years of collecting, these deposits are still yielding many an eye opener and there are lots of hidden treasures in museum and private collections.
