Mart J. M. Deckers

• Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht

REMARKABLE LATE CRETACEOUS FOSSILS FROM LIÈGE-LIMBURG Part 56. Two interesting teleost fishes in the spotlight. Over recent years, teleost fish material from the Upper Cretaceous of Liège-Limburg has been receiving more attention, yet (semi-) articulated and associated skeletons are rarely encountered. Here, two remarkable and partially articu...

In the Netherlands, Late Palaeozoic pelmatozoans – that is, stalked echinoderms – are known from building stones and cobbles in rivers, but there are no in-situ carbonate rocks from which they might be collected. Unsurprisingly, most recognisable specimens are columnals and pluricolumnals. Two small thecae, collected in the mid-1970s from silexite...

Isolated bones of three taxa of marine reptiles (Mosasaurus hoffmannii Mantell, Plioplatecarpus marshi Dollo and Allopleuron hofmanni (Gray)) from various levels within the Maastricht Formation (upper Maastrichtian) at the former ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group quarry (Maastricht, the Netherlands) exhibit bioerosional traces and encrustation. Episkelet...

Ever since the first description of fossil material during the mid-nineteenth century, sea grass has been shown to be quite commonly preserved in ‘pockets’ or ‘clumps’ at certain levels within the Gulpen, Maastricht and Kunrade formations in southern Limburg (the Netherlands) and contiguous areas in northeast Belgium. In those places where silicifi...

The robust calcite rostra (or guards) of belemnites were attractive substrates for some boring organisms in the Mesozoic. The rostra of belemnitellid coleoids are common at certain levels within the Gulpen and Maastricht formations of the extended type area of the Maastrichtian Stage (Upper Cretaceous) in the south-east Netherlands and north-east B...

Seagrasses are the only seed plants to have invaded marine environments successfully. Seagrass fossils are both rare and have received scant attention so far. However, among the limited number of plant fossils from marine strata in the Maastrichtian type area, remains of seagrasses are relatively common. The present paper provides a detailed descri...

Rare Palaeozoic chert clasts collected from gravels in the bedload of the River Maas in the province of Limburg, south-east Netherlands, are rich in crinoid debris. These were transported during the Late Pliocene–Pleistocene by fluvial action from the southern Ardennes Massif (Namur-Dinant area, southern Belgium) and are of Early Carboniferous (Mis...

In general, holdfasts (including distalmost stalk plates) of bourgueticrinid crinoids (Comatulidina, Bourgueticrinina) are comparatively rare in Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) strata in the extended type area (northeast Belgium, southeast Netherlands). Here we describe a number of examples of such holdfasts. Two of these are of note in comprising...

A well-preserved centrodorsal of a comatulid crinoid recently collected from the basal Gronsveld Member (Maastricht Formation) as exposed at the ENCI-Maastricht BV quarry (Maastricht) is assignable to Jaekelometra defectiva JAGT, 1999. Until now, of this species, tentatively referred to the atelecrinid genus Jaekelometra GISLÉN, 1924, only the rath...

The bourgueticrinid 'Bourgueticrinus' aequalis D'Orbigny, 1841 is by far the commonest Late Cretaceous crinoid species in the type area of the Maastrictian State (NE Belgium, SE Netherlands). Many hundreds of thousands of dissociated ossicles, of crowns and columns alike, have been collected during recent years. Based on the structure of the crown...

A tetramerous specimen of a new late Maastrichtian ophiuroid species from the Meerssen Member (Maastricht Formation) as exposed at the ENCI NV quarry, south of Maastricht, is described and briefly discussed. Non-pentamerous specimens of this species which dominates ophiuroid assemblages known from this member at this locality, are extremely rare. -...