Grube Messel grid square F8/9, 2.5-2.85m over 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)

• Grid square F 8/9, 2.5m to 2.85m above local stratigraphic marker level alpha.

• 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,

Primary reference: T. Spasojevic, S. Wedmann, and S. Klopfstein. 2018. Seven remarkable new fossil species of parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from the Eocene Messel Pit. PLoS One 13(6):e0197477 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 153473: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 21.12.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Ichneumonidae
Scambus fossilobus
Scambus fossilobus Spasojevic et al. 2018 ichneumon wasp
SF MeI 16962