Grube Messel Pit, excavation grid square E9, 0.43-0.97 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)

• 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

Collected in 1989; reposited in the SMF

Collection methods: quarrying,

Primary reference: G. Tröster. 1994. Neue Arten der Gattung Macropunctum (Insecta, Coleoptera, Elateridae) aus der Olschieferfazies der mitteleozänen Messelformation der Grube Messel bei Darmstadt. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 68:145-162 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 139218: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 09.02.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Coleoptera - Tenebrionidae
? Ceropria messelense1
? Ceropria messelense1 Hörnschemeyer 1994 darkling beetle
SMF MeI 2464
 Coleoptera - Elateridae
Macropunctum angustiscutellum n. sp.
Macropunctum angustiscutellum n. sp. Tröster 1994 click beetle
SMF MeI 2571,637,3357,163,233,253,271,373,794,1109,2262
 Coleoptera - Buprestidae
"Psiloptera (Damarsila) transversovittata" = Psiloptera transversovittata2, Buprestinae "indet. 5"2, Buprestinae "indet. 7"2
"Psiloptera (Damarsila) transversovittata" = Psiloptera transversovittata2 Haupt 1950 jewel beetle
SMF MeI 2567
Buprestinae "indet. 5"2 Leach 1815 jewel beetle
SMF MeI 2590 (Psiloptera/Dicerca)
Buprestinae "indet. 7"2 Leach 1815 jewel beetle
SMF MeI 2598 (Psilopterini/Dicercini gen. sp. 2)
1Hörnschemeyer 1994; 2Hörnschemeyer and Wedmann 1994