Grube Messel Pit, grid square E15, 1 m below to 2 m above alpha (Eocene of Germany)

Where: Hessen, Germany (49.9° N, 8.8° E: paleocoordinates 46.9° N, 4.8° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Messel Formation, MP 11 (48.6 - 40.4 Ma)

• From 1 m below to 2 m above horizon alpha

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crater lake; lithified claystone

• "A drilling project conducted in 2001 showed that the former Lake Messel was a maar lake, which is a small deep lake that had its origin in an explosive volcanic eruption. The former lake basin had an original diameter of about 1.5 km, and a depth of about 300–400 m (Harms, 2002; Felder & Harms, 2004)."
• "The fossils are embedded in darkly coloured, finely laminated claystone sediments rich in organic substances (‘oil shale’), which were deposited in a meromictic lake (e.g. Goth, 1990)."

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: adpression, soft parts

Collected in 1984; reposited in the SMF

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Repository: now FIS, Forschungsstation Grube Messel

Primary reference: G. Tröster. 1994. Neue Arten der Gattung Macropunctum (Insecta, Coleoptera, Elateridae) aus der Olschieferfazies der mitteleozänen Messelformation der Grube Messel bei Darmstadt. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 68:145-162 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 139219: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 09.02.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Coleoptera - Attelabidae
Palaeoalatorostrum schaali2
Palaeoalatorostrum schaali2 Rheinheimer 2007 leaf rolling weevil
MeI 1196 (from 2 m below to 2 m above alpha)
 Coleoptera - Buprestidae
? Dicerca "sp. 1"1, Psiloptera "sp. 1"1, "Psiloptera (Damarsila) transversovittata" = Psiloptera transversovittata1
? Dicerca "sp. 1"1 Eschscholtz 1829 jewel beetle
SMF MeI 1190, 1461
Psiloptera "sp. 1"1 Dejean 1833 jewel beetle
SMF MeI 770, 1156
"Psiloptera (Damarsila) transversovittata" = Psiloptera transversovittata1 Haupt 1950 jewel beetle
SMF MeI 119, 1144, 1292
 Coleoptera - Elateridae
"Macropunctum messelensis" = Macropunctum messelense3, Macropunctum eocaenicum3, Macropunctum rebugense n. sp.
"Macropunctum messelensis" = Macropunctum messelense3 Tröster 1991 click beetle
SMF MeI 8, 760, 1132
Macropunctum eocaenicum3 Meunier 1921 click beetle
SMF MeI 178
Macropunctum rebugense n. sp. Tröster 1994 click beetle
SMF MeI 1145, 699, 143, 3474
1Hörnschemeyer and Wedmann 1994; 2Rheinheimer 2007; 3Tröster 1991