Remains of trionychid turtles are abundant in the early Eocene fossil record of Belgium where several species are recognized. In this context, the remains of several large-bodied individuals, with a shell length of about one meter, stand out both for their size and good preservation. The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences houses several unpublished large-size specimens, but also others with a high historical value (e.g., those from Erquelinnes and Leval), which had not been, until now, studied in detail. Recent studies proposed that all large trionychids from the Eocene of Western Europe could belong to a single species, attributable to the North American genus Axestemys. However, a valid diagnosis for this putative European single species is not currently available, since the characters that allow its differentiation with each of the North American species have not been well established. Several of the best preserved Belgian specimens have been recently restored, which allows us to perform their detailed study. Thus, the description of several anatomical elements hitherto poorly known or not described for the large-bodied trionychids of the Eocene of Europe can be performed for the first time. The study of the Belgian specimens, which correspond to the most complete and best preserved in Europe, allows us to evaluate the hypothesis on whether they belong to the same species as the other largebodied trionychids found in the Paleogene record of this continent. Thus, this study significantly increases the information on the relatively poorly known Paleogene large trionychids of Europe. This research was supported by network project BR/121/A3/PALEURAFRICA from the Belgian Science Policy Office, and by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (IJCI-2016-30427).
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Within the framework of the QuakeRecNankai project, which focuses on the geological record of paleoearthquakes rupturing the Nankai-Suruga subduction zone, we sampled bottom sediments of the Fuji Five Lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji. In October 2014, we acquired 23 short gravity cores from Motosu, Sai, Kawaguchi and Yamanaka Lakes. We focus on investigating the sensitivity of each lake for recording natural hazards (storms, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes). Recent natural hazards impacting the Fuji Five Lakes area are expected to be recorded as rapidly deposited layers within the background hemipelagic sediments. We seek to identify event deposits in the collected short cores based on visual identification combined with high resolution analyses, comprising geophysical and geochemical properties, grain size and X-ray images. We establish an age-depth model by combining radionuclide (14C,137Cs,210Pb) dating with the identification of historical tephra layers, in particular the one deposited during the Hoei eruption (AD 1707) of Mount Fuji. The sedimentary events in each lake are compared to a historical catalogue of natural hazards in the Fuji Five Lakes area, including historical records of megathrust earthquakes rupturing the Nankai subduction zone and other earthquakes occurring along the inland active faults that produced significant shaking (MKS intensity >7) in the Fuji Five Lakes area. The preliminary sedimentary study highlights the high sensitivity of Motosu Lake compared to the very shallow Yamanaka and Kawaguchi Lakes, which we attribute to its specific geomorphology. Motosu Lake is characterized by a deep basin, surrounded by very steep slopes. The generation of earthquake triggered mass transport deposits/turbidites and the preservation of the deposits are favored due to the architecture of the basin. The Fuji lake sensitivity to megathrust events will be the target of a future coring campaign to retrieve a longer geological record.
Located in
Library
/
No RBINS Staff publications
