A brachiopod-dominated sea-floor assemblage from the Late Pliocene of the eastern Netherlands'

Abstract

A sea-floor assemblage from hardened sandstone boulders in which lingulid brachiopods predominate is recorded from the Oosterhout Formation near Balgoy (province of Gelderland, the Netherlands). Dinoflagellate cysts indicate a late Early-Late Pliocene (late Zanclean-Piacenzian) age of these boulders; the entire assemblage is indicative of clear marine waters near storm wave base along the southeastern margin of the North Sea Basin at the time. A possible commensal relationship between the lingulid brachiopods and the gastropod Calyptraea chinensis is implied.