Grube Messel Pit, grid square F9, 2.5-3.5 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)

• Approximately 2.5-3.5 m above 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

• Repository: now FIS, Forschungsstation Grube Messel

Primary reference: S. Wedmann, J. M. Pouillon, and A. Nel. 2014. New Palaeogene horntail wasps (Hymenoptera, Siricidae) and a discussion of their fossil record. Zootaxa 3869:33-43 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 166830: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 28.02.2015

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Hemiptera - Pentatomidae
Eospinosus peterkulkai3
Eospinosus peterkulkai3 Wedmann et al. 2021 stink bug
SF-MeI 16148, 16861
 Hemiptera - Aradidae
Mezira petrificata n. sp.2
Mezira petrificata n. sp.2 Heiss et al. 2015 flat bug
FIS MeI 15157
 Hymenoptera - Ichneumonidae
Polyhelictes bipolarus n. gen. n. sp.1
Polyhelictes bipolarus n. gen. n. sp.1 Spasojevic et al. 2018 ichneumon wasp
SF MeI 16069
 Hymenoptera - Siricidae
? Xoanon eocenicus n. sp.
? Xoanon eocenicus n. sp. Wedmann et al. 2014 horntail
MeI 14895
1Spasojevic et al. 2018; 2Wappler et al. 2015; 3Wedmann et al. 2021