Study day on the fossils of our North Sea

During the ice ages, the North Sea was not a sea, but a dry tundra plain intersected by wide rivers. The flooded North Sea plain of the past is now gradually revealing its secrets. People and animals once lived on that plain. We know this from the many bone remains that the fishermen regularly retrieve and the prehistoric beach finds they receive from the Flemish Institute of the Sea. We can learn a lot about climate change from those thousands of years old finds, according to a study day today.

Jan Seys, VLIZ: “There is a lot of interest and that is for two important reasons. The first is that the reclamation of the beaches will make a lot of sand from further parts of the North Sea accessible to hikers and interested parties. And the second is that there are there is a lot more collaboration between experts and ordinary citizens. Citizen science so to speak. And that is particularly fruitful.”

Bones of mammoths, saber cats and hyenas from about 12,000 years ago. Since the sea level rise after the Ice Age, there has been an entire biotope on the North Sea bed under a thick layer of sand. And wise lessons can be drawn from those discoveries. “We want to draw attention to the archaeological and paleontological wealth of the North Sea. It tells the story of the dramatic climate changes that we experienced several times during the Ice Age.”