De Rijcke, M.

Germonpre, M.

Hablützel, P.I.

Lambert, O.

Langeveld, B.

Missiaen, T.

Open Marine Archive

124 
Poster presentation Competition poster 
The Scheur: A unique prehistoric fossil graveyard off the Belgian coast  
Missiaen Tine1, Hablutzel Pascal1, De Rijcke Maarten1, Lambert Olivier2, Germonpre Mietje2 and 
Langeveld Bram3 
1  Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), InnovOcean site, Wandelaarkaai 7, 8400 Oostende, Belgium 
 E-mail: tine.missiaen@vliz.be 
2  Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (IRScNB/KBIN), Vautierstraat 29, 
1000 Brussel, Belgium 
3  Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, Westzeedijk 345 (Museumpark), 3015 AA Rotterdam, The 
Netherlands  
 
Over the past few decades Dutch fishermen have dredged up large amounts of unique 
prehistoric palaeontological material at the Scheur, a navigation channel northeast of the 
harbour of Zeebrugge. Especially the large number of walrus bones from the last ice age 
(116,000-12,000 years ago) is striking. The excellent state of the bones and the find of both 
males, females and young animals indicate that a large colony must have lived here, possibly 
the most southern walrus colony in the world. In the same area also a number of vertebrae from 
ancient whales were dredged up, dating from the Middle Eocene (roughly 43 million years ago). 
Remains of these primitive marine mammals are very rare in NW Europe (only three known sites 
in the North Sea). The unusual size of the vertebrae (width c. 30 cm) could suggest a hitherto 
undiscovered species of the family Protocetidae. 
 
Two targeted surveys in 2017 and 2018 produced additional finds of Late Pleistocene land 
mammals, related to interglacial fauna (wild horse, aurochs, red deer, roe deer, rhinoceros, boar 
and hippo) as well as glacial fauna (brown bear; wild horse; red deer). All the bone material is 
most likely preserved in situ, derived from layers exposed at the seafloor. Due to maintenance 
dredging of the navigation channel 10 to 12 m of sediments were removed, thereby exposing 
older Late Pleistocene and even Paleogene strata. Determination and dating of the fossils are 
currently ongoing, including the screening for ancient DNA. Radiocarbon analysis of the walrus 
bone is ambiguous (the method only goes up to 40,000 years), and palaeogeographic 
reconstructions suggest that the bone material predates the last ice age. Further planned 
research of the site includes the acquisition of shallow sediment cores and dating based on 
shell residue and other indicators for climate (e.g. pollen, diatoms, dinoflagellates). Combined 
with acoustic subbottom data this should allow to reconstruct the evolution of the 
palaeolandscape at the site. 
 
Keywords: Scheur; Fossil bones; Palaeolandscape 
  


The Scheur: A unique prehistoric fossil graveyard off the Belgian coast

http://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/324902.pdf

The Scheur: A unique prehistoric fossil graveyard off the Belgian coast

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