Grube Messel grid square F8/9, 2.05-2.5m 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 193978: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 09.06.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Ichneumonidae
Trigonator macrocheirus n. gen. n. sp., Xanthopimpla praeclara n. sp., Xanthopimpla messelensis n. sp.
Trigonator macrocheirus n. gen. n. sp. Spasojevic et al. 2018 ichneumon wasp
SF MeI 17304
Xanthopimpla praeclara n. sp. Spasojevic et al. 2018 ichneumon wasp
SF MeI 17300
Xanthopimpla messelensis n. sp. Spasojevic et al. 2018 ichneumon wasp
SF MeI 16988