Grube Messel grid square E8/9, 0-0.28 m under alpha (Eocene of Germany)

Also known as Messel Pit

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)

• "lower Middle Eocene, lower-most Geiseltalian, Mammal Paleogene level 11..."

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crater lake; lithified, carbonaceous 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 class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression, soft parts

Reposited in the SMF

Collection methods: quarrying

• Repository: now FIS, Forschungsstation Grube Messel

Primary reference: J. Rheinheimer. 2007. Neue fossile Rüsselkäfer (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) aus dem Eozän des Baltischen Bernsteins und der Grube Messel bei Darmstadt. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 365:1-24 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 140812: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 17.03.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Coleoptera - Attelabidae
Palaeoalatorostrum schaali n. gen. n. sp.
Palaeoalatorostrum schaali n. gen. n. sp. Rheinheimer 2007 leaf rolling weevil
MeI 5575