We report here the addition of two rare mosasaur taxa to the Maastrichtian marine amniote fauna of Angola, both of which are also found in northern Europe. The new specimens include a dentary fragment referable to the large carnivore Prognathodon cf. saturator and an isolated tooth of the small durophage Carinodens belgicus. Both were recovered from Maastrichtian outcrops in southern Angola in 2011. Additionally, a complete posterior mandibular unit of a large mosasaur from the type Maastrichtian of the Netherlands, collected some time prior to 1879 and previously identified as ‘Mosasaurus giganteus’, is described and reassigned here to Prognathodon saturator; historical issues surrounding the taxonomic attribution of this specimen are clarified. The new material extends the known geographic distribution of Prognathodon saturator and Carinodens belgicus.

From the 40s A.D. onwards a dense military system was established in the Lower Rhine delta in the Netherlands. Long since, it is questioned why this system was established in a wetland area and even turned into the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire, the Limes. A new detailed palaeogeographical map, based on a digital elevation model (LIDAR), soil maps and excavation results, was constructed. This reconstruction provides insight and understanding of the interactions between the natural environment in this part of the delta on the one hand and the establishment of this part of the Limes along the Old Rhine between Utrecht and Katwijk on the other. This study shows that the distinctive landscape of the western Rhine-Meuse delta, with an exceptionally large number of tributaries, determined the spatial pattern of the military structures. All forts (castella) were erected on the southern natural levees of the river Rhine, directly alongside the river, regardless of height and composition of the subsoil and alongside or opposite routes that provided natural access to the river. We conclude that their aim was to guard all waterways that gave access to the river Rhine from the Germanic residential areas further north and from/to the Meuse tributary further south in the delta. In addition, a system of small military structures, mostly watchtowers, was erected between the forts to watch over the river Rhine and its river traffic. Furthermore, at least two canals were established to create shorter and safely navigable transport routes to the river Meuse. At first, this integrated system of castella and watchtowers probably aimed to protect against Germanic invasions and to create a safe corridor for transport and built up of army supplies for the British invasion in 43 A.D. Only later on, probably by the end of the first century, this corridor turned into a frontier zone.

A 3D geological raster model has been constructed of the onshore of the Netherlands. The model displays geological units for the upper 500 m in 3D in an internally consistent way. The units are based on the lithostratigraphical classification of the Netherlands. This classification is used to interpret a selection of boreholes from the national subsurface database. Additional geological information regarding faults, the areal extent of each unit and conceptual genetic models have been combined in an automated workflow to interpolate the basal surfaces of each unit on 100 × 100 metre (x,y dimensions) raster cells. The combination of all interpolated basal surfaces results in a 3D Digital Geological Model (DGM) of the subsurface. A measure of uncertainty of each of these surfaces is also given. The automated workflow ensures an easily updatable subsurface model. The outputs are available for end users through www.dinoloket.nl.

The geology of the Wicken Vision Area in the lower Cam valley is described with reference to a stacked series of ten cross-sections through Holocene and Pleistocene deposits, and Cretaceous/Jurassic bedrock across the region. A detailed cross-section through a Holocene palaeochannel, with radiocarbon dating and pollen analyses is also presented. The structural geology of the bedrock and the stratigraphic arrangement of the Pleistocene and Holocene deposits are used to describe landscape development for the area. This study offers a new understanding of the stratigraphy and context of the Holocene, Weichselian and earlier Pleistocene deposits of the lower Cam valley, and provides a unique view of sediment architecture in valley-fill sediments at the fen edge.

During recent years, regular round structures have been collected from the top of Bed 12 of the Vossenveld Formation (Lower Muschelkalk, lower Middle Triassic, Anisian) in the Winterswijk area, eastern Netherlands. These are here illustrated and described as probable remains of jellyfish.

We investigated the Quaternary lithological succession and faunas in a borehole near Moriaanshoofd (Province of Zeeland, SW Netherlands), in order to improve our understanding of the depositional context of classical Gelasian mammal faunas from the region. The fossils mostly derive from the base of a fossil-rich interval between 31 m and 36.5 m below the surface, that was initially interpreted as a Middle or Late Pleistocene interglacial marine unit, but turned out to be a Late Quaternary fluvial unit with large amounts of reworked fossils and sediments. Eocene mollusc taxa pinpoint Flanders (Belgium) as the source region for this river. Within the base of this paleo-Schelde River fossil material of various stratigraphic provenance became incorporated.