Geert Willemen is a retired teacher from Middelbeers and he appears to have made a very special find on the dumping heap of an old coal mine. There he enjoys looking for old plant remains and fossils as a hobby. And a few years ago he accidentally discovered a new type of millipede, 310 million years old. From this Monday, the fossil will have a special place in the permanent exhibition of the Prehistoric Museum in Boxtel.
The retired teacher made his discovery in Eygelshoven, Limburg. Over the years, he has collected an extensive collection of mainly plant remains during his searches in the waste mountains of coal mines in South Limburg. The print of the elongated creature that he discovered in August 2011 also initially ended up in his collection of fossil plants. But he kept wondering what exactly he had found.
Exceptional
That is why he made an appeal in a magazine for Limburg fossil collectors at the beginning of 2019. But there was no response whatsoever. So later that year Geert went to the Prehistoric Museum in Boxtel, with his fossil neatly packed in a box. Museum director René Fraaije is a specialist in the field of fossil arthropods and immediately saw that this was an exceptional find.
The fossil that Geert found consists of a positive (a piece with the horn-like armor) and a negative (the imprint of the armor). It was sent to a renowned scientific research institute in Munich. The animal was further examined there using the most modern techniques. It turns out to be not only a new species but also a new biological grouping for science.
Lauravolsella willemeni
Together with the Prehistoric Museum, a publication was prepared and sent to a leading international scientific journal. The publication came out last weekend. Now, twelve years after Geert Willemen’s discovery, the Netherlands has a very special, ancient new resident.
The ancient Dutch millipede has been given the name lauravolsella willemeni. With this name, Willemen is thanked and honored for this acquisition in paleontology.
Triangular, pincer shape of anus
According to the Prehistoric Museum, the new find shows a very special way of rolling up, which is no longer visible in current millipedes. “The body segments are extra long, which made this special roll-up system possible. The triangular, pincer-shaped shape of the anus is also completely new for this group.”
The Prehistoric Museum has been working with amateur collectors for years. This collaboration regularly bears fruit.