Maastrichtian borings

Maastrichtian borings

The Maastrichtian is the last stage of the Cretaceous, the end of the age of dinosaurs. It was first described from the Maastricht area in the 19th Century.  Jointly with Dr. John Jagt of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, a diverse record of borings into shells is being described. These borings represent ‘frozen’ ecology, the remains of invertebrates which commonly lacked a mineralized skeleton.

Professor Dr. Stephen K. Donovan

Senior researcher
Taxonomy & systematics

steve.donovan@naturalis.nl
+31 (0)71 751 9642

Maastricht

50.857935429919, 5.7008955

Figure caption:

Decapod crustacean (crab) remains from the Middle Eocene Litchfield Formation, Yellow Limestone Group at Seven Rivers, parish of St. James, western Jamaica. Specimens in the collection of the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville. A-D Callianassid sp. indet., limb fragments of a mud shrimp. E-H Diogenid gen. et sp. nov., claw of a hermit crab.  (After Donovan & Portell, 2019, Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, fig. 1.)