Report of the Paleonthologic fishing expedition in the Eurogeul with the GO-33 on Monday 25 Aril 2005
The North sea is renowned for its wealth of paleontological treasures of the middle to late Pleistocene, especially the Eurogeul due to dredging activities, deepening the navigation channel As winter has passed again, the Eurogeul may have been dredged again and besides water currents may have exposed more fossils, so it’s time to check that out. This time the expedition is on initiative of the German paper “ Zeit wissen” (Time knowing) as the Yukagir mammoth in the Expo in japan has drawn some attention world wide. The initial plan was a visit to the CERPOLEX treasures in Khatanga, Taymir peninsula but the red tape things were Together with Klaas Post (Urk) and organized by Dick Mol, a Eurogeul expedition was quickly set up as a reasonable alternative. With a small beam- trawler that is usually fishing for flatfish like sole and place a lot of other objects are collected, even fossils sometimes.
A good fortune was that I also got an invitation to join as Dick knows that I’m very interested in hands on examination of the Pleistocene remains. Especially the North Sea was intriguing, especially after reading “Submarine Prehistoric Archeology of the North Sea” that Dick advised about on the WPZ website.
Anyway, on the big day we meet at 4.30 somewhere on a exit of a highway to be well in time for the big event in Stellendam. In the Harbor we meet the order members. The weather is beautiful and soon we are on open sea with a speed of about 11 knots heading for a new area that was never tried before. However later it was decided to go for more certainty so we continued for the Eurogeul after all.
Transiting to the area takes two hours with lots of coffee and mammoth talk. The experts Jelle Reumer and John de Vos ponder about possible spectacular discoveries. More mammoths would be nice but those are common. A second scimitar cat, especially a skull would be the most spectacular. Personally I would also add a mid Pleistocene homo sapiens to that. Anyway then the nets are finally released for the first time to start drawing on the sea bottom. The heavy chains at the front of the nets plow though the sediments, arousing the bottom so most of the objects are stirred up and get into the net. This takes a lot of power and the speed of the ship reduces to only 3-4 knots. Then after some half an hour the nets are pulled in again and the contents are released in some big boxes. The catch is reasonable for the fisherman although the asmount of sole and place is not big also many young “pietermannen” and “poons” are also in and a lot more undefined creatures. The first element of the loot is quickly spotted, an dark peculiar shaped bone. Dick observes it very carefully for at least two milliseconds and decides after ample consideration of another millisecond that it’s a "spine of an Irish elk". For the lawmen, this translates to a vertebra of a Megaloceros giganteus . Also some bison and mammoth bones are in. An akward stone, a flint looks like an ancient archeological tool for scraping hides. A promising start. However, the next couple of pulls are disappointing. Not many bones, not many fish. An interesting little hoof of a Pleistocene horse but no real exiting game. Then another very long pull provokes excitement. A large hump is quickly identified of a part of a mammoth skull, a large old bull. The net produces an abundance of skull fragments as the open structure of a mammoth skull resembles a sort of honeycumb structure. Apparantly the skull has partly disintegrated in the net. Too bad but the Nature museum of Rotterdam will reassemble the skull again. The same pull also brings a couple excellent skull parts of a bison with horns still in it’s place. Finally we are getting somewhere. The large amount of wood intrigues me, old tree stumps and branches. A large trunk is set aside. Dick will have it carbon dated. I ponder that it’s probably early Holocene >10,000 years, after all I have read that book but some think that it may be older. Further pulls brings more fossils, to me hardly distinguishable from stones but the experts explain what parts of animals we see like kneecaps and foot bones. There is also a fragment of a very large tusk with a diameter that exceeds both the Jarkov and the Yukagir tusks.
When we return to Stellendam there is lots of time to discuss the merits of fishing and the problems, the surprising modern electronics that help schipper Maarten to know exactly what he is doing. The Journalist Florian wants to know everything about mammoths and their particulars and the experts are happy to tell him all about it. The climate and invironment of the Pleistocene steppe remains as always a point for dispute. We ponder about the typical dating of the Eurogeul bones, either older than 28,000 years or younger than 10,000 years? Why nothing in between? I propose that the area may have been inundated in that time frame apart from the passing of the late Devensian – Weichselian ice sheet in that period that makes the climate of the area a lot less attractive. However I’m getting a new idea, the Heinrich events may have to do with that. Time for a new hypothesis.
We arrive back in the harbor at 1800, exactly as planned and we look back on a splendid experience thanks to the support of the “zeit wissen” and Klaas Post and Schipper Maarten de Waal and his crew for a very successful event.
Another place you might want to consider is Whitby, which is quite nearby. I'm not sure whether Staithes or Whitby is better for fossils, but there is more to do in Whitby if you get bored, or decide you fancy some fish and chips.
