Triassic fossil reptile discovery in Dutch museum

This video says about itself:

21 March 2013

An overview of reptiles found in Triassic marine ecosystems.

Translated from daily De Gelderlander in the Netherlands:

Prehistoric marine reptile from Winterswijk ‘discovered’

January 9, 2015

ENSCHEDE WINTERSWIJK – Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Zurich have recently ‘discovered’ a placodont in the collection of Museum TwentseWelle. The remains of the marine reptile were found in the late 1980’s in the quarry in Winterswijk by Gerben Diepenbroek from Varsseveld.

Diepenbroek gave his collection in 2008 to the museum in Enschede. Since then the collection is a subject of investigation by various universities in Europe.

According to Dennis Nieweg, nature department curator of TwentseWelle, it is a very special discovery. “Worldwide but a few placodonts are known.”

245 million years

The placodont is a marine reptile that lived some 245 million years ago in shallow waters, ”grazing’ seabeds looking for small animals such as sea urchins and crabs. According to Nieweg the discovery of this placodont improves our understanding of how the Netherlands was like 245 million years ago. The region around Winterswijk was under water then and was part of an inland sea covering the Netherlands.

The fossil remains of this sea reptile are again in Enschede after all investigations. Museum TwentseWelle shows them in a special showcase.

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