West of Quarry 2, 50cm above Level β12 (B12), Messel Pit World Heritage Site (Eocene of Germany)

Also known as Cryptolacerta hassiaca type locality

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." - from collection 120798

•

•50 cm above Level β12... Eocene (Lutetian).

• 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

Reposited in the SMF

Collection methods: quarrying,

Primary reference: J. Müller, C. A. Hipsley, J. J. Head, N. Kardjilov, A. Hilger, M. Wuttke, and R. R. Reisz. 2011. Eocene lizard from Germany reveals amphisbaenian origins. Nature 473:364-367 [P. Barrett/T. Cleary]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 181071: authorized by Paul Barrett, entered by Terri Cleary on 17.08.2016

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Squamata - Lacertidae
Cryptolacerta hassiaca n. gen. n. sp.
Cryptolacerta hassiaca n. gen. n. sp. Müller et al. 2011 squamates
SMF ME 2604 (holotype), nearly complete specimen missing distal tail