At the locality of Heidebos (Moervaart area, N Flanders, Belgium), a sedimentary core was taken in the Maldegem-Stekene coversand ridge and dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The study aimed at contributing to an improved understanding of the evolution of the physical landscape around archaeological settlements in this area. The core comprised a 7 m thick series of laminated and massive aeolian sands, in which several organic layers were intercalated. From this sequence, 11 samples were collected for quartz-based SAR-OSL dating; an internally consistent dataset was obtained. The ages of the lowermost 1 m of the sedimentary sequence (15.5±1.1 ka and 17.3±1.3 ka) imply that these sediments may represent the time-equivalent deposit of a deflation phase that occurred during the Late Pleniglacial and led to the formation of a widespread desert pavement, regionally known as the Beuningen Gravel Bed. However, a significant part of the sediments (at least 4 m) was deposited later, i.e. during the Allerød and/or the Late Dryas. As such, the results allow establishing the genesis of the coversand ridge at the Heidebos locality on the basis of direct age information. The relatively high sedimentation rate and the absence of extensive soil formation in the record reflect periods of pronounced aeolian activity and landscape instability during the Late Glacial, which provides part of the environmental framework for human occupation in the area.

Botanical microfossils, macroremains and oribatid mites of a Weichselian interstadial deposit in the central Netherlands point to a temporary, sub-arctic wetland in a treeless landscape. Radiocarbon dates and OSL dates show an age between ca. 54.6 and 46.6 ka cal BP. The vegetation succession, starting as a peat-forming wetland that developed into a lake, might well be linked with a Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic cycle. We suggest that during the rapid warming at the start of a D-O cycle, relatively low areas in the landscape became wetlands where peat was formed. During the more gradual temperature decline that followed, evaporation diminished; the wetlands became inundated and lake sediments were formed. During subsequent sub-arctic conditions the interstadial deposits were covered with wind-blown sand. Apart from changes in effective precipitation also the climate-related presence and absence of permafrost conditions may have played a role in the formation of the observed sedimentological sequence from sand to peat, through lacustrine sediment, with coversand on top. The Wageningen sequence may correspond with D-O event 12, 13 or 14. Some hitherto not recorded microfossils were described and illustrated.

Facies belts exhibit a back-stepping trend towards the London Brabant/ Rhenish Massif through the Early Cretaceous. The overall eustatic sea-level rise was punctuated by short-term tectonic events identified either as localised or North Sea wide in extent. The biostratigraphically constrained sequences have, for the first time, allowed a detailed calibration of tectonic and eustatic events on a North Sea scale. The most extensive database available to any North Sea Cretaceous study was available to the authors together with a comprehensive suite of new high-resolution biostratigraphy and sedimentology. This has allowed unique insights into provenance, depositional environment, extent of sequence stratigraphical events and the degree to which unconformities have been tectonically accentuated.

A single internal mould of the holasterid echinoid Holaster laevis (Brongniart, 1822) constitutes the first record of this species from the upper portion (‘Upper Holland Marl’) of the Holland Formation (Rijnland Group), of middle-late Albian age, in the Winterswijk area (eastern Netherlands). The geographic range of H. laevis can thus be extended to this part of western Europe, with previous records from southern England (Wiltshire, Devon) and the Département Ain in east-central France.