60 jaar fossiele schelpen van de Nederlandse stranden en zeegaten: op naar het pensioen?

From the 1950s onwards, long running inventories have been made of the fossil shells from the Dutch coasts. In these inventories amateur collectors and professionals worked together to establish the species identities and occurrences. Currently about 700 species of fossil shells are known from the Dutch coast. In all these years the NMV facilitated and supported the work. The various arguments underpinning the type of research on ex-situ fossils given by C.O. van Regteren Altena over half a century ago are being reconsidered.We conclude that for many reasons the work on these fossil shells has its merits, above all because of the inspiration it invokes by all those involved.