Wat determinatiesessies aan nieuwe gegevens kunnen opleveren: nieuws van het strand van Maasvlakte 2

Maasvlakte 2 is an artificial westerly extension of the port of Rotterdam (the Netherlands), having been created from 240 million m3 suction-dredged, coarse fluvial sediments from the Eurogeul area. These deposits are very rich in fossils of mammals and molluscs. Many private collectors collect from the Maasvlakte 2 beach. Mainly on the basis of some visits we made to these collectors, we here present a number of first records from this important locality. These are: Sus strozzii Forsyth Major, 1881, Mammuthus meridionalis (Nesti, 1825), Alces latifrons (Johnson, 1874), Desmana thermalis Kormos, 1930, post-cranial material of Trogontherium cuvieri Fischer, 1809 and Desmana sp., molars of Ovibos moschatus (Zimmermann, 1780) and internal moulds of the freshwater snail Planorbarius corneus (Linnaeus, 1758). Based on the material studied, it is concluded that Maasvlakte 2 is exceptionally rich in fossils of Early and Middle Pleistocene age. This is most likely related to the great depth at which these sands were dredged. Thus, Maasvlakte 2 currently is the most important Pleistocene locality in the Netherlands, offering a wealth of new data on older Pleistocene faunas from the Eurogeul area.