New records of giant campanilid gastropods (Mollusca) from the southern North Sea Basin: implications for Eocene and Quaternary palaeogeography∙

Abstract

Three specimens of the large-sized Eocene campanilid gastropod genus Campanile have been dredged from the modern sea floor in the Bruine Bank area (North Sea, Dutch sector). The material is identified here as Campanile parisiense rarinodosum, a subspecies hitherto unknown from the North Sea Basin. All three shells are strongly abraded, reflecting their secondary derivation. The new finds suggest that fossiliferous strata of probably late Lutetian (middle Eocene) age are represented in the southern North Sea Basin, situated most likely in the southeastern part of the UK sector. The present material of Campanile must have been reworked into the Dutch sector via Quaternary rivers. The occurrence of Campanile parisiense rarinodosum would indicate close biogeographic ties between the North Sea and the western French Atlantic basins during the late Lutetian. These new records thus shed light on the palaeogeography of the area during two widely separated geological time slices.