Grube Messel grid square E8/9, 0.575-0.77 m above alpha marker (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)

• "lower Middle Eocene, lower-most Geiseltalian, Mammal Paleogene level 11... 0.575-0.77 m above local stratigraphic marker 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: S. Wedmann and V. N. Makarkin. 2007. A new genus of Mantispidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) from the Eocene of Germany, with a review of the fossil record and palaeobiogeography of the family. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149:701-716 [M. Clapham/J. Karr]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 117257: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 18.09.2011, edited by Jered Karr

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Neuroptera - Mantispidae
Symphrasites eocenicus n. gen. n. sp.
Symphrasites eocenicus n. gen. n. sp. Wedmann and Makarkin 2007 mantidfly
FIS MeI 8384