INTRODUCTION

The Winterswijk quarry complex (Figure 1) contains Triassic (Anisian and Rhaetian), Jurassic (Hettangian), and Cenozoic (Oligocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene) sediments (e.g., Oosterink 1986; Diedrich 2001; Herngreen et al. 2005; Klompmaker and Van den Berkmortel 2007; Klompmaker et al. 2010) of which the Anisian (Muschelkalk) sediments predominate. These sediments are part of the Vossenveld Formation that has been erected recently (Subkommission Perm-Trias 2008). Within these predominantly marine sediments, numerous fossils have been found such as reptiles, reptile footprints, other trace fossils, fishes, bivalves, ammonites, a brachiopod, bivalves, gastropods, rare plant fossils, chelicerates, and crustaceans (e.g., Oosterink 1986; Oosterink et al. 2003). This article focuses on decapods (lobsters) from Winterswijk quarry which have never been described in detail. Moreover, fossil lobsters from the Netherlands are extremely rare. This article describes and discusses the oldest lobsters from the Netherlands. Other, younger fossil lobsters include Meyeria ornata (Phillips 1829) from the Hauterivian of Losser (Anderson 1980), late Maastrichtian Oncopareia bredai Bosquet 1854 (sensu Tshudy 1993; = Hoploparia beyrichi Schlüter 1862), and Jagtia kunradensis Tshudy and Sorhannus 2000 from the Kunrade area (Jagt and Fraaije 2002), and undeterminated lobsters from the Eocene (Bartonian-Lutetian) of Losser (Spaink et al. 1978, p. 12). The freshwater Pygocephalus dubius (Milne-Edwards 1840) from the Carboniferous strata in the southern part of the province of Limburg (Van der Heide 1951) belongs to the superorder Eocarida, and, therefore, is not a lobster that is part of the Decapoda.