Grube Messel Pit, grid square K13, excavation 30, 1.5 m below-2 m above M (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)

• 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

Reposited in the SMF

Collection methods: quarrying

• Repository: now FIS, Forschungsstation Grube Messel

Primary reference: G. Tröster. 1991. Eine neue Gattung der Elateridae (Insecta: Coleoptera) Macropunctum gen. n. aus der Messel-Formation des unteren Mittel-Eozän der Fundstätte Messel. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 139:99-117 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 162175: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 19.09.2014

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Coleoptera - Elateridae
Lanelater "sp. 2", Lanelater verae, Macropunctum eocaenicum
Lanelater "sp. 2" Arnett 1952 click beetle
SMF MeI 1958 (1.5-0 m below)
Lanelater verae Tröster 1993 click beetle
SMF MeI 1969, 1978 (0-2 m above)
Macropunctum eocaenicum Meunier 1921 click beetle
SMF MeI 1927