Grube Messel Pit (Behnke collection) (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)

• "lower Middle Eocene, lower-most Geiseltalian, Mammal Paleogene level 11… .575 to .77 m above local stratigraphic marker 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

Reposited in the SMF

Collection methods: quarrying,

Primary reference: T. Hörnschemeyer and S. Wedmann. 1994. Fossile Prachtkäfer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Buprestinae) aus dem Mitteleozän der Grube Messel bei Darmstadt, Teil 1. Courier For­schungsinstitut Senckenberg 170:85-136 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 163334: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 23.10.2014

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Ichneumonidae
Rhyssella vera n. sp.
Rhyssella vera n. sp. Spasojevic et al. 2018 ichneumon wasp
SF MeI 8814
 Coleoptera - Buprestidae
Buprestinae "indet. 4", "Psilopterini "genus 1"" = Dicercina, Psiloptera "sp. 1", ? Psiloptera "sp. 3"
Buprestinae "indet. 4" Leach 1815 jewel beetle
SMF B 163 (Touzalinia/Dicercomorpha)
"Psilopterini "genus 1"" = Dicercina Gistel 1848 jewel beetle
SMF B 179 (Touzalinia/Psiloptera)
Psiloptera "sp. 1" Dejean 1833 jewel beetle
SMF B 3
? Psiloptera "sp. 3" Dejean 1833 jewel beetle
SMF B 42