De Strandgaper Mya arenaria al in Nederland ‘vóór Columbus’

During the Pleistocene, the coastal marine bivalve mollusc Mya arenaria became extinct in NW Europe. The species remained present in Northern America. Here we report on finds of Mya arenaria in the coastal landscape of The Netherlands: polders reclaimed from the Wadden Sea and the former estuaries of the primal IJ and Old Rhine. The shells from the Wadden Sea polders and primal IJ date before 1492 AD; the shell from the Old Rhine estuary is younger.