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The composite Kortrijk section (W Belgium): a key reference for mid-Ypresian (Early Eocene) stratigraphy in the southern North Sea Basin.
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The upper part of the Kortrijk Clay Formation (the Roubaix Clay and Aalbeke Clay Members of mid-Ypresian age) has been exposed in road and canal cuttings and clay quarries in the Kortrijk area (western Belgium), and penetrated by several cored boreholes. It is overlain disconformably by the Mont-Panisel Sand Member of the Hyon Sand Formation (upper middle Ypresian). The Roubaix Clay Member contains diverse and well-preserved calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellate cysts, foraminifera, ostracods and other calcitic microfossils, and less well-preserved mollusc assemblages, while the Aalbeke Clay Member is secondarily decalcified. The calcareous nannofossil subdivision of upper NP11 and lower NP12 has been recognised in the Kortrijk area, and calibrated with the NW European mid-Ypresian dinoflagellate cyst, ostracod and planktonic foraminiferal zones and datums (e.g. Subbotina influx). Several medium-scale depositional sequences, with an estimated duration of 400 kyr or less, have been recorded. Their respective boundaries coincide with the resistivity maxima identified on the majority of the wireline log profiles of the Belgian Ypresian. Integrated biostratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic analysis enables correlation with other areas in Belgium, with the London Clay Formation of southern England, and with the standard chronostratigraphic scale. A marine erosion surface has been identified at the base of Unit 20 in the Kortrijk area (mid-Ypresian, early Biochron NP12, middle C24n.1n, ~ 52.8 Ma), corresponding to the first occurrence of estuarine channel-fill units in southern England. This indicates a brief but profound sea-level fall, either eustatically or tectonically controlled. The composite Kortrijk section is proposed as a reference section for the middle Ypresian in the southern North Sea Basin, and for similar settings in mid- to high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (e.g. Kazakhstan and Crimea).
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
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The correlation of Famennian and Tournaisian deposits of the USSR and French-Belgian basin on conodonts
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The cost of CO2 geological storage is more than a number
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CO2 geological storage is the last stage in the CO2 capture and storage process which aims to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The cost of storage has frequently been regarded as minor compared to the cost of the whole CCS process. There are however a multitude of cost parameters that will form a unique combination for each storage project, with costs projected from one to several tens of euros per tonne of CO2 stored. Several research efforts have lately been identifying the main cost drivers and relatively wide cost ranges. Reservoir type and location, geological uncertainty, injectivity and capacity are recognised as the main source of cost variation between potential storage projects.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/P) boundary in the Aïn Settara section (Kalaat Senan, Central Tunisia): lithological, micropalaeontological and geochemical evidence.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The Diest Formation: a review of insights from the last decades
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
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The diet of harbour porpoises bycaught or washed ashore in Belgium, and relationship with relevant date from the strandings database.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The Diversity of Fish Otoliths, Past and Present
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The Diversity of Fish Otoliths, Past and Present (Dirk NOLF)is a publication from the Operational Directorate “Earth and History of Life” of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (www.naturalsciences.be). This new book (222 p. & 359 pl.) contains a historical and nomenclatural overview of otolith research in paleontology, with special emphasis on their great impact on the evaluation of the fossil record of teleostean fishes, and a systematic overview (with iconography) of the 1391 fossil species considered to be valid and of all Recent species for which otoliths have been found as fossil. Otoliths of nearly all recent families and subfamilies are illustrated by at least one example, covering about 95% of all known extant taxa. For every fossil species, the stratigraphic and geographic origin of the type material is given, and where available, also the collection numbers and depository of the holotype. Fossil species based on skeletons with otoliths in situ, but which do not have exclusively otolith-based primary types, are also included. An alphabetic list of all the 1797 nominal otolith-based fossil fish species, with an evaluation of their validity and their actualized nomenclature is provided.
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The earliest Eocene mammal fauna of the Erquelinnes Sand Member near the French-Belgian border
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The earliest Eocene Erquelinnes site was discovered in 1880, but its mammal fauna has been frequently ignored. This paper provides the first detailed overview of the Erquelinnes mammals since 1929. The new faunal list doubles the known diversity at Erquelinnes to a total of 16 species, now also including amphilemurids, hyaenodontids, mesonychids, louisinids, equids and diacodexeids. The majority of the Erquelinnes species is also present in the earliest Eocene Dormaal MP7 reference fauna, with as most notable exceptions the presence of a potentially dwarfed specimen of Dissacus, and of two perissodactyl taxa at Erquelinnes. The ceratomorph perissodactyl Cymbalophus cuniculus is also known from the earliest Eocene of England, but a specimen identified as cf. Sifrhippus sandrae is closely similar to contemporaneous primitive North American equids. This specimen represents the oldest unambiguous European equid and highlights faunal similarities between Europe and North America during this time interval. Faunal differences between Erquelinnes and Dormaal seem mostly due to depositional differences, and the Erquelinnes fauna represents a typical earliest Eocene fauna, closely similar to other MP7 and PEI faunas in Europe.
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The Early Carboniferous progymnosperm Protopitys: new data on vegetative and fertile structures, and on its geographic and stratigraphic distribution
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We review progress made during the last 25 years in our understanding of the Protopityales, Early Carboniferous plants belonging to the extinct group of the progymnosperms. Recent studies support previous observations that the only genus of this order, Protopitys, included large arborescent plant with trunks up to 1 m in diameter. All branch orders had an oval eustele, secondary xylem with small rays and tracheid pitting ranging from circular bordered to scalariform bordered, and vascular traces to lateral appendages emitted in an alternate to subopposite distichous arrangement. Leaf morphology remains unknown. New material also confirms that fertile organs of Protopitys consist of branching systems bearing elongated sporangia terminally. Spores have a perispore and range in two size groups, which has been interpreted as a primitive stage of heterospory. The dense wood and fertile parts of Protopitys are comparable to those of the aneurophytalean progymnosperms of the Devonian, but Protopitys is distinct by its eustelic primary vascular system, and its affinities are still uncertain. The genus is now documented from at least nine localities in Europe, North America and Australia. Recent discoveries also indicate that it was present through the whole Mississippian, from the middle Tournaisian to the Serpukhovian.
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The fluorescent minerals in the Belgian Mineral Collection of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
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RBINS Staff Publications
