Deurganckdok, Kattendijk Member: Zanclean, Netherlands

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Mammalia - Cetacea - Balaenopteridae
Fragilicetus velponi n. gen., n. sp. Bisconti and Bosselaers 2016
1 specimen
see common names

Geography
Country:Netherlands
Coordinates: 51.3° North, 4.3° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:51.4° North, 3.9° East
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Time
Period:Neogene Epoch:Pliocene
Stage:Zanclean 10 m.y. bin:Cenozoic 6
Key time interval:Zanclean
Age range of interval:5.33300 - 3.60000 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Formation:Kattendijk Member:Kattendijk
Stratigraphic resolution:member
Stratigraphy comments: The specimen was found in situ in the Kattendijk Sand Member of the Kattendijk Sands Formation (Early Pliocene, Zanclean), about 3 m above the basal gravel, at a depth of about 21.5 m below the Tweede Algemene Waterpassing (TAW; Fig. 2). TAW is the standardized (rectified) second general water level (main level of the sea at Ostend at low tide). The Belgian standard TAW is 2.33 m lower than the Dutch, German, and French standards. At the discovery site, the basal gravel of the Kattendijk Sand Member is in contact with and on top of the Rupel clay (Oligocene, Rupelian) at a depth of about 24.6 m (Fig. 2). At the top, the Kattendijk sands are unconformably overlain by the basal gravel of the Oorderen Sand Member (Middle Pliocene, Piacenzian). The Kattendijk Sand Member is about 6 m thick at the discovery site. At about the level of the fossil, in the Kattendijk sands, one occasional and two (almost) continuous shell layers occur. The upper layer mainly consists of single valves of Glycymeris obovata ringelei (Moerdijk & van Nieulande, 2000) (Bivalvia, Glycymeridae); the lower level consists of single valves of Paliolum gerardi (Nyst, 1835) (Bivalvia, Pectinidae). Intermixed between these levels, it is sometimes possible to observe an occasion- al layer mainly formed by duplets of Plyothirina sowerbyana (Nyst, 1843) (Brachyopoda). The estimated age of the Kattendijk Formation has been con- strained between c. 5.0 and 4.4 Mya (Louwye, Head & De Schaepper, 2004). The Kattendijk Formation was correlated with the standard sequence 3.4 (Vandenberghe et al., 1998), and the base of this for- mation with the sequence boundary at 5.5 Mya (Haq, Hardenbol & Vail, 1987), which is now regarded as sequence boundary Me2 at 5.73 Mya (Hardenbol et al., 1998). The correlation of the Kattendijk Formation with standard sequence 3.4 (5.73–4.37 Mya) was confirmed by Louwye et al. (2004). Based on these correlations, the estimated age of the holotype skeleton of F. velponi is approximately 5 Mya.
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: poorly lithified sandstone
Includes fossils?Y
Environment:marine indet.
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Feeding/predation traces:tooth marks
Collection methods and comments
Reason for describing collection:general faunal/floral analysis
Metadata
Also known as:Deurganckdock
Database number:179576
Authorizer:M. Uhen Enterer:M. Uhen
Modifier:M. Clapham Research group:vertebrate
Created:2016-06-20 16:16:43 Last modified:2021-07-25 22:54:01
Access level:the public Released:2016-06-20 16:16:43
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
59463. M. Bisconti and M. Bosselaers. 2016. Fragilicetus velponi: a new mysticete genus and species and its implications for the origin of Balaenopteridae (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 177:450-474 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]

Secondary references:

71818 C.-H. Tsai, A. Collareta, and M. Bosselaers. 2020. A Pliocene gray whale (Eschrichtius sp.) from the Eastern North Atlantic. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 126(1):189-196 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]