Paleophilatelie.eu - Luxembourg 2024 - Europa-2024 (2024)

On May 14^th, 2024 Post Authority of Luxembourg, issue the set of two self-adhesive stamps "Europa-2024: Underwater flora and fauna".These stamps show two underwater animals who were contemporaries of dinosaurs:

• Ichthyosaur (Leptonectidae) shown on the stamp with the face value"L50g" which is equivalent to the rate of domestic letter with weight up to 50g.
• Plesiosaur (Microleidus melusinae) shown on the stamp with the face value"E50g" which is equivalent to the rate of Europe wide letter with weight up to 50g.

The stamps were designed by Luxembourg's artist Jean-Marie Poissenot and show two species of the underwater animals who lived many million of years ago, at the southern part of Luxembourg, which was a part of the sea.

Jean-Marie Poissenot - after he funished the art school in Epinal and Dijon, Mr. Poissenot started to work as illustrator in Paris.
Today his works can be seen in Musee d'Archeologie in Strasbourg Musee de La Tour aux Puces in Thionvil le and the Musée national d'histoire naturelle - 'natur musée in Luxembourg.Poissenot also Illustrated some books for the Luxembourger Ministry of Education.

The presentation ceremony of these stamps took place in the"Musée national d'histoire naturelle - 'natur musée". Two souvenir frames, with both Mini-Sheets and FDC, were presented by Mr Mario Treinen, Director of POST Courrierand Mr Claude Balthasar, Head of Patrimoine & POST Philately, to Mr Patrick Michaely, Director of the 'natur musée', and Mr Jean-Marie Poissenot.
This was also an opportunity for Dr. Ben Thuy, curator of the Museum, to talk about the remarkable excavation of an ichthyosaur fossil in the early 2020s at the Cloche d'Or, rue Émile Bian.

Ichthyosaur

In 2021, a junior employee of the Natural History Museum found the first piece of fossilized calcium on a construction site near the local water tower at emerging Cloche d'Or business centre to the south of Luxembourg City.
A dozen of volunteers searched the ground for more fragments during the excavation day organized by the museum's curator, Dr. Ben Thuy.Many single bones of an Ichthyosaur, contain ribs and a tooth were discovered.
The age of excavated bones was estimated at 190 million years ago.Initially, these fossils were assigned to Temnodontosaurus, but in the later review, they were assigned to Leptonectidae genus.

Leptonectidae is a family of ichthyosaurs known from Late Triassic to Early Jurassic marine deposits in Europe. They were all small to medium-sized creatures, most noted for their very long, swordfish-like snouts, which could have been used like a weapon, slashing through schools of fish.

Plesiosaur

The almost entire skeleton, including skull, of plesiosaur was collected by amateur fossil collector, René Hirtz, in the mid 1980s from construction works for electric pylons of the Pétange-Belval line, at almost equal distance from the localities of Sanem and Soleuvrein south of Luxembourg.

It remained in the basem*nt of Mr. Hirtz home, without anyone noticing its unique character and scientific importance for the paleontological heritage. After it death, 30 years after the discovery of the skeleton, a volunteer researcher at the MNHN, realized, while cleaning up the basem*nt, that the find could be something special. "It was not in its current condition," explains Robert Weis, paleontologist at the MNHN. "The skeleton was in a calcareous nodule; you could make out the outlines, but only an expert would see anything other than a few stones in it."
The Museum acquired the specimen in 2013, then send it to Germany, where preparator Oliver Kunze spent over 200 hours peeling the fossil out of the limestone.Due to the fact, the bones were spread over several rocks and some bones were broken, it was a big puzzle to construct them together into the skeleton.As Musée national d'histoire naturelle - 'natur muséedoesn't have the expert for vertebrate fossils, the museum collaborated with paleontologist Peggy Vincent from Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris.The research team, which inlcuded also three paleontologists from Luxembourg:Robert Weis, Guy Kronz and Dominique Delsate, described the fossil in 2017 and named it as new species: Microleidus melusinae.
The specific name is derived from the French name "Melusine", the name of a mythical woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down.Melusine is part of European folklore and is said to have been married to Count Siegfried, considered the first count of Luxembourg.

Microleidus melusinae was about 2.5 meters long and lived about 180, million years ago.Its hind and front extremities had the shape of swimming fins. They had an elongated body, a long neck and a relatively small head.The trap-like teeth and the long neck suggest that Microleidus melusinae was a predator. It fed on smaller cephalopods and schools of fish, which it probably hunted by swinging its head back and forth and eating the creatures that got caught in its small, sharp teeth.

The skeleton is now on display in the permanent exhibitions of the Museum (specimen number MNHNL TV434), since 2017, where it illustrates the evolution of marine reptiles.As it represents one of the rare plesiosaurian specimensfrom that stage found outside of the United Kingdomand Germany, and one of the rare plesiosaurianspecimens from Luxembourg,many paleontologists from around the world are coming to Luxembourg to study the unique fossil.

Musée national d'histoire naturelle Luxembourg - natur musée(in English the National Museum of Natural History)

The museum belongs to the Society of the Natural Sciences, which was established in 1850, under the patronage of Prince Henry, the newly appointed Governor of Luxembourg representing Grand Duke William III. The society's primary aim was the promotion of the natural sciences and natural history to the general public. To achieve this, the government put at the society's disposal a section of the city Athenaeum, now the National Library. Opening its doors in 1854, this area hosted a number of cabinets displaying fossil specimens, spread across three rooms. Since then, the museum moved several times, from one location to another.

Today, the museum is located in the Grund quarter on the eastern bank of the Alzette river, next to the Neumünster Abbey cultural centre in the Luxembourg City.
The museum is composed of eight separate scientific sections, spanning the natural sciences: botany, ecology, geology and mineralogy, geophysics and astrophysics, palaeontology, vertebrate zoology, and invertebrate zoology.
Completely renewed permanent exhibitions reopened their doors in June 2017 on more than 1000 m2. The brand new museological and museographic concept reflects the state of research in natural history in general and that of the museum's rich collections in particular, thus providing a global perspective on current topics such as biodiversity and evolution.
In addition to its permanent exhibition, the museum regularly hosts special and focused exhibitions all about plants, animals and the universe. An interactive multimedia system as well as an ecological database connects the visitor to the natural sciences, plants and animals of the Grand Duchy.

Two videos, where curator of the Museum Dr. Ben Thuy explain about Ichthyosaur and Plesiosaur fossils from collection of the museum.The audio is in German and Luxembourgish (no video with English audio found to date).

:

• Technical details and official press release:
  
  • POST Philately:ichtyosaur stamp, plesiosaur stamp, the postmark, presentation ceremony.
  • colnect,
• Ichthyosaur discovery in Luxembourg:Luxembourg Times,
• Temnodontosaurus:Wikipedia,
• Leptonectidae:Leptonectidae,
• Plesiosaur discovery in Luxembourg:Delano,Delano,RTL LU, including video in French and German.
• Microcleidus:Wikipedia,
• Musée national d'histoire naturelle Luxembourg - natur musée: official website, facebook,