Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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The Paleogene of the Paris and Belgian Basins. Standard-Stages and regional stratotypes.
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Integrated stratigraphic analysis of Lower Rupelian deposits (Oligocene) in the Belgian Basin.
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Ypresian Teleost otoliths from Belgium and Northern France.
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The Ypresian Stratotype.
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Holocene palaeoecology and human environmental interactions at the coastal Black Sea Lake Durankulak, northeastern Bulgaria
- The environmental changes (vegetation history, human impact and land use, influence of the Black Sea) in the area of Lake Durankulak, northeastern Bulgaria, were reconstructed and synthesized for the last ca. 8000 years. The palaeoecological information derived from various proxies (pollen, plant macrofossils, molluscs, sediments) was compared on a regional scale with the evidence from the nearby coastal lakes ShablaeEzeretz and Bolata. The Early Holocene xerothermic steppe vegetation, dominated by Chenopodiaceae, Artemisia and Poaceae species, and accompanied by stands of trees in moister habitats, was transformed after 6000 cal. BP into a forest-steppe, comprising oak woods with Carpinus betulus, Ulmus, Tilia, Acer. This vegetation pattern has been periodically modified, depleted and replaced by arable land or xerothermic herbaceous communities enriched with anthropophytes and ruderals, particularly after the intensification of human activities since 3300 cal. BP. The archaeobotanical evidence from the region has provided valuable information about the occupation phases and subsistence strategy of the local people since the Late Neolithic (5300 cal. BC/7250 cal. BP). Periods with cultivation of cereals (Triticum, Hordeum) and/or stock-breeding activity were interrupted by abandonment of the settlements and the arable land due to unfavourable environmental changes. The periodical connection/isolation of Lake Durankulak with the Black Sea and the periods of marine influence were recorded by changes in the composition of the fossil molluscan fauna and the lithology of the sediments, and chronologically confirmed by radiocarbon dates. The development of the coastal lakes throughout the largest part of the Holocene has been also considerably influenced by the fluctuations of the Black Sea level.
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Testing models of Eemian sea level variability, using estuarine deposits from the North Sea basin
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Gladiopycnodontidae, a new family of pycnodontiform fishes from the Late Cretaceous of Lebanon, with the description of three genera.
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An archaic ichthyosaur from Iraq reveals disparate phylogenetic origins for Cretaceous ichthyosaurs
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Cold Code: The global initiative to DNA barcode amphibians and nonavian reptiles
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Comparative phylogeography reveals distinct colonization patterns of Cretan snakes
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Mouthful of snake: An African snake-eater’s (Polemon fulvicollis graueri) large typhlopid prey
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Next-generation museomics disentangles one of the largest primate radiations
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Ammonite extinction revisited
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The CRETACAM project: a new look at Santonian to Maastrichtian deposits of the Belgian Campine basin
- The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences(RBINS) holds a collections of well over 7000 Cretaceous fossils that were collected by the RBINS staff in the early 1930ies during the construction of several coal mine shafts in the eastern part of the Belgian Campine Basin. These fossils include ammonites, nautilids, belemnites, bivalves (inoceramids and other), gastropods, crustaceans, brachiopods, echinoderms and other. The majority of the material is from mine shafts 1 and 2 of the Houthalen and Zolder mines, in-between 400 and 600 m below surface. Both mines are located in the eastern part of the Campine Basin. Since their discovery, the majority of this material has never been thoroughly studied and published. Detailed listings of the fauna and an overview in relation to the stratigraphy are absent. In the 1930ies, by the varying amounts of glauconite, chalk, sand, sandstone and the ‘Gyrolithes’ ichnofossils, the sediments between 400 and 600 m depth were interpreted as belonging to the ‘Smectite de Herve’ facies. Therefore, early students referred to fossils from this locality as Campanian in age, while more recent studies and ongoing work document Santonian to Maastrichtian ages with (from bottom to top) the Asdonk and Sonnisheide Members (Vaals Formation), the Zeven Wegen, Beutenaken Marl, Beutenaken Chalk, Vijlen and Lixhe Members (Gulpen Formation). The CRETACAM project aims for fully documenting the lithological, stratigraphical, paleontological and paleo- ecological changes in the Santonian to Maastrichtian sequence of the eastern part of the Campine Basin. In a first step, all locality information of all 7000 specimens was digitalized. In a second and ongoing step, the taxonomy of all specimens will be revised by an international team of paleontologists.
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3D reconstruction of fang replacement in the venomous snakes Dendroaspis jamesoni (Elapidae) and Bitis arietans (Viperidae)
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Reliable DNA barcoding performance proved for species and island populations of Comoran squamate reptiles
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Nieuwe familie fossiele beenvissen ontdekt in Libanon
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Notes on the herpetofauna of western Bas-Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Genetic and morphological divergences in the cosmopolitan deep-sea amphipod Eurythenes gryllus reveal a diverse abyss and a bipolar species
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Morphological variation and taxonomic reassessment of the endemic Malagasy blind snake family Xenotyphlopidae
