Also known as Deurganckdock

Where: Netherlands (51.3° N, 4.3° E: paleocoordinates 51.4° N, 3.9° E)

• coordinate stated in text

When: Kattendijk Member (Kattendijk Formation), Zanclean (5.3 - 3.6 Ma)

• The specimen was found in situ in the Kattendijk Sand Member of the Kattendijk Sands Formation (Early Pliocene, Zanclean), about 3 m above the basal gravel, at a depth of about 21.5 m below the Tweede Algemene Waterpassing (TAW; Fig. 2). TAW is the standardized (rectified) second general water level (main level of the sea at Ostend at low tide). The Belgian standard TAW is 2.33 m lower than the Dutch, German, and French standards. At the discovery site, the basal gravel of the Kattendijk Sand Member is in contact with and on top of the Rupel clay (Oligocene, Rupelian) at a depth of about 24.6 m (Fig. 2). At the top, the Kattendijk sands are unconformably overlain by the basal gravel of the Oorderen Sand Member (Middle Pliocene, Piacenzian). The Kattendijk Sand Member is about 6 m thick at the discovery site. At about the level of the fossil, in the Kattendijk sands, one occasional and two (almost) continuous shell layers occur. The upper layer mainly consists of single valves of Glycymeris obovata ringelei (Moerdijk & van Nieulande, 2000) (Bivalvia, Glycymeridae); the lower level consists of single valves of Paliolum gerardi (Nyst, 1835) (Bivalvia, Pectinidae). Intermixed between these levels, it is sometimes possible to observe an occasion- al layer mainly formed by duplets of Plyothirina sowerbyana (Nyst, 1843) (Brachyopoda). The estimated age of the Kattendijk Formation has been con- strained between c. 5.0 and 4.4 Mya (Louwye, Head & De Schaepper, 2004). The Kattendijk Formation was correlated with the standard sequence 3.4 (Vandenberghe et al., 1998), and the base of this for- mation with the sequence boundary at 5.5 Mya (Haq, Hardenbol & Vail, 1987), which is now regarded as sequence boundary Me2 at 5.73 Mya (Hardenbol et al., 1998). The correlation of the Kattendijk Formation with standard sequence 3.4 (5.73–4.37 Mya) was confirmed by Louwye et al. (2004). Based on these correlations, the estimated age of the holotype skeleton of F. velponi is approximately 5 Mya.

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; poorly lithified sandstone

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: M. Bisconti and M. Bosselaers. 2016. Fragilicetus velponi: a new mysticete genus and species and its implications for the origin of Balaenopteridae (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 177:450-474 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 179576: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 20.06.2016

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)