Late Cretaceous gastropod egg capsules from the Netherlands preserved by bioimmuration

Abstract

Clusters of gastropod egg capsules, inferred to be of neritoids and attached to the inner shell wall of the ultimate whorl of a large volutid gastropod, are here recorded from the upper Nekum Member (Maastricht Formation; late Maastrichtian) of the ENCI-Heidelberg Cement Group quarry, St Pietersberg (Maastricht, southeast Netherlands). Because the aragonitic shell of the volutid has dissolved, the outlines of the egg capsules are now revealed on the steinkern of indurated biocalcarenite, having been subsequently overgrown by cheilostome bryozoan colonies and preserved as mould bioimmurations. This represents the first example of gastropod eggs preserved through bioimmuration, as well as the first record of gastropod eggs from the Cretaceous.