Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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The thermal spring of Elvenschans-Navagne in Moelingen (Voeren-Fourons) and its geological origin
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Geoelectrisch onderzoek op de Grensmaas
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Fault pattern of the Feldbiss fault system (southern margin of the Rur Valley Graben), based on a high resolution reflection seismic survey carried out in 1999 – preliminary results. In: Camelbeeck, Th., ed., Proceedings of the Workshop: Evaluation of the
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De onderkant van Limburg, verwaarloosd erfgoed.
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Jos Bouckaert (1930-1999) Leven en Werk
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Deformation features in Paleogene sands in the Hoegaarden area (Belgium)
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Palaeogeographic and palaeoenvironmental characteristics of major marine incursions in Northwestern Europe during the Westphalian C (Bolsovian)
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The Merksplas-Beerse geothermal well (17W265) and the Dinantian reservoir
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Plio-Pleistocene fault pattern of the Feldbiss fault system (southern border of the Roer Valley Graben, Belgium) based on high resolution reflection seismic data
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Puits soufflard et calcul des vides dans un karst couvert, l'exemple du sondage de Ramegnies-Chin. In: Verheyden, S. & Bernard, Ch., eds. Actes des Journées de SpéléologieScientifique Han-sur-Lesse 1997 à 2000
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Pityokteines vorontzowi (Jakobson, 1896), Scolyte nouveau pour la faune de Belgique (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)
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Amplified seasonality in western Europe in a warmer world
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Binkhorstiidae, a new family of crabs (Decapoda, Brachyura, Retroplumoidea) from the upper Cretaceous of the Netherlands and Belgium.
- In addition to the type species, Binkhorstia ubaghsii, which is fairly common in the upper part of the Nekum Member (Maastricht Formation) in the wider vicinity of Maastricht (the Netherlands) and Binkhorstia euglypha, which appears to be restricted to the overlying Meerssen Member of the same formation (uppermost Maastrichtian), a third member, B. desaegheri nov. sp., is recorded from the upper middle Santonian of the Campine area in north-east Belgium. The history of Binkhorstia is convoluted, serving as a prime example of how attempts to unravel the higher-level taxonomic position of late Mesozoic crabs may prove difficult. Over time, the genus has been referred to various families or subfamilies, either podotreme or putative eubrachyuran; here the new family Binkhorstiidae is placed in the superfamily Retroplumoidea. Binkhorstiids appear to have been a relatively short-lived endemic group that fell victim to Cretaceous‒Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary perturbations.
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Belgian fossil shells as fortune tellers? Unique climate archives yet hardly tapped into
- Shells are powerful climate archives - they add growth increments on timescales as short as sub-daily, and often live for decades, some even more than 100 years. With the aid of isotope and trace-elemental geochemistry, the effects of climate change on temperature, seasonality and extreme weather can be read from them. Belgium is one of the few countries blessed with extensive records of exquisitely preserved fossil shells dating to the Pliocene, a geologic period dating from 5.3 to 2.6 million year ago. Critically, the Pliocene is the youngest geologic time during which CO2 levels were >400 ppm and mean annual temperatures comparable to those to be reached by the end of this century, following Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) 2-4.5 of the IPCC. It therefore presents an ideal near-future analogue. Rich collections of well-preserved Belgian Pliocene shells are in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), and more material is collected from temporary outcrops like building sites in and around Antwerp with the aid of citizen-scientists. In recent years, RBINS collaborated with national (VUB, KULeuven) and international (VU Amsterdam, Naturalis, UDerby) researchers to start tapping into these exquisite climate archives, unraveling previously unknown details on Belgian past climate, predicting amplified seasonality in Europe in a warmer world, and investigating the potential of fossil shells to document heat waves and storms. The poster will highlight some of this recent collaborative work, and, why the RBINS, through its collections, fieldwork and expertise can play a pivotal role in climate research in Belgium.
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To colour or not to colour: Colour patterns and pigments in Invertebrates from the Palaeozoic of Belgium.
- Almost nothing is known about the evolution of shell colour in invertebrates. This is largely due to the ultra-rarity of fossils in which colour patterns and pigments are preserved and immediately visible, and therefore easy to identify, especially when these are hundreds of millions of years old. This hampers our understanding of the role and function of colour in extinct animals, their ecology, mode of life, interactions, development, and evolution. A good example for this ultra-rarity is the Palaeozoic of Belgium, world-renowned for its exquisitely preserved fossils of the Devonian and Carboniferous, enabling to document major transitions in ecosystem dynamics and the evolution of life on Earth (e.g. nekton revolution, terrestrialisation, major climate changes, anoxic events, biodiversity crises) but from which only a few cephalopod, bivalve and gastropod mollusc and brachiopod shells were historically documented preserving coloured traces (mostly by L.-G. de Koninck and P. de Ryckholt, mid to late 19th century). However, recently, it was discovered that many more specimens preserve these traces, in particular those from Tournaisian–Viséan shallow marine reef environments, allowing to investigate its occurrence in different evolutionary lineages of marine invertebrates exactly during one of the main periods of revolution in geologic history. In Brain project B2/P233/P2 nicknamed COLOURINPALAEO financed by Belspo, after gathering all the specimens available in the main Belgian collections, we will use different techniques (multispectral photogrammetry and spectro-imaging) to better visualise the preserved colour patterns and pigments. Furthermore, advanced spectroscopic techniques, namely Raman micro-probe spectroscopy, synchrotron trace elemental mapping and absorption spectroscopy, will be used to identify the chemical signature of the pigments as well as their mode and pathways of preservation. Some of the first results on this multidisciplinary study on a unique set of Belgian fossils will be presented.
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Eric Simon (1948-2018): his contributions to the knowledge of Campanian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) brachiopods.
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An exceptionally diverse pre-K/Pg boundary nautilid fauna from the Maastrichtian type area (the Netherlands and Belgium).
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To colour or not to colour: colour patterns and pigments in invertebrates from the Palaeozoic of Belgium
- Almost nothing is known about the evolution of shell colour in invertebrates. This is largely due to the ultra-rarity of fossils in which colour patterns and pigments are preserved and immediately visible, and therefore easy to identify, especially when these are hundreds of millions of years old. This hampers our understanding of the role and function of colour in extinct animals, their ecology, mode of life, interactions, development, and evolution. A good example for this ultra-rarity is the Palaeozoic of Belgium, world-renowned for its exquisitely preserved fossils of the Devonian and Carboniferous, enabling to document major transitions in ecosystem dynamics and the evolution of life on Earth (e.g. nekton revolution, terrestrialisation, major climate changes, anoxic events, biodiversity crises) but from which only a few cephalopod, bivalve and gastropod mollusc and brachiopod shells were historically documented preserving coloured traces (mostly by L.-G. de Koninck and P. de Ryckholt, mid to late 19th century). However, recently, it was discovered that many more specimens preserve these traces, in particular those from Tournaisian–Viséan shallow marine reef environments, allowing to investigate its occurrence in different evolutionary lineages of marine invertebrates exactly during one of the main periods of revolution in geologic history. In Brain project B2/P233/P2 nicknamed COLOURINPALAEO financed by Belspo, after gathering all the specimens available in the main Belgian collections, we use different techniques (multispectral photogrammetry and spectro-imaging) to better visualise the preserved colour patterns and pigments. Furthermore, advanced spectroscopic techniques, namely Raman micro-probe spectroscopy, synchrotron trace elemental mapping and absorption spectroscopy, are used to identify the chemical signature of the pigments as well as their mode and pathways of preservation. Some of the first results on this multidisciplinary study on a unique set of Belgian fossils will be presented.
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Editorial
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Biodiversité et écologie de la faune aquatique des eaux souterraines de Bir Ben Osmane (Guelma, Nord-Est Algérie)
