The large number of rural Roman settlements known from the Low Countries is generally characterised by a poor preservation of ecological proxies due to the absence of waterlogged contexts. The riverside site of Wijmeers (Wichelen, Belgium), a small rural settlement located in the Lower Scheldt basin, represents a rare exception to this pattern. Due to the presence of a waterlogged sequence with Roman (late 1st–3rd centuries AD) waste layers, located only a few metres from a main building structure, and the covering of the site with alluvial sediments shortly after its abandonment, the preservation condition of charred and uncharred organic materials was exceptional. The combined study of these proxies (pollen, seeds, charcoal, mollusc shells and animal bones) presents unique insights into the subsistence economy of a Roman rural household in the Lower Scheldt valley in general, and especially its exploitation of the valley and river environments. Besides this cultural–economical perspective, the site provides key information for understanding the chronology of fluvial and alluvial processes in the Lower Scheldt Basin for a large part of the Subatlantic period (Iron Age to Early Middle Ages, ca 800 BC–900 AD).
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
Here we review the fossil record of European mesonychids, which are known only through the genera Dissacus and Pachyaena from Thanetian and Ypresian localities (from MP6 to MP10 reference-levels). We describe two new species, Dissacus rougierae, sp. nov., and Dissacus raslanloubatieri, sp. nov., respectively from Palette (Ypresian, ≈MP7) and from La Borie (Ypresian, ≈MP8 + 9). We also describe new specimens of D. europaeus from Berru (Thanetian, ≈MP6). The evolution of the geographic distribution of the European mesonychids is characterized by three phases: (1) the mesonychid Dissacus appeared in Europe during the Thanetian (≈ 57–58 Mya), probably due to dispersal from North America; D. europaeus survived the PETM event (≈ 56 Mya) and possibly experienced a dwarfism; (2) the large mesonychid Pachyaena migrated into Europe shortly after the Paleocene-Eocene boundary (≈ 55 Mya), but it was restricted to northwestern Europe, while Dissacus is recorded at this time only in southwestern Europe (Palette); and (3) Pachyaena rapidly disappeared from European environments, while Dissacus subsequently dispersed into northwestern Europe (≈ 54–52 Mya). We performed phylogenetic analyses in order to identify the relationships of the new species among mesonychids. It seems that the mesonychids went through two radiative events: the first during the Paleocene, the second mostly during the early Eocene. The first one corresponds to the diversification of Dissacus, while the latter resulted in the appearance of the most specialized mesonychids, such as Pachyaena and Mesonyx.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
