Solnhofen Limestone

The Solnhofen Limestone is a Konservat-Lagerstätten, and named by the IUGS as one of its most important geological heritage sites worldwide.

The site produces finely preserved fossils of various creatures, enough, in fact, that I’d need to write a book about it to cover the subject in any remote detail.

Amongst the more well recognised species found here are Archaeopteryx, a feathered dinosaur. There are also fossil records of pterodactyls, pterosaurs, lizards, feathers, insects, sharks, and more – over 600 species are known from the site.

For mineral collectors, dendritic limestones are found around the area, unusual branching growths of crystalline manganese which form ‘tree like’ growths across a flat plane of rock. These are sometimes known as ‘pseudofossils’, as to the untrained eye they definitely appear to be organic in origin.

Further reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solnhofen_Limestone
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleobiota_of_the_Solnhofen_Limestone
• https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solnhofen_Limestone (simple Wikipedia, a more accessible page for beginners)

If you are interested in other classic German locales we may have stock from the following locales.

German locales

• Dämmelwald clay pit, Wiesloch, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Gründenwald, St Ulrich, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Hechtsberg quarry, Hausach, Ortenaukreis, Freiburg Region, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Käfersteige Mine, Würm, Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Schmiedestollen dump, Wittichen, Rottweil, Freiburg Region, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

• Hagendorf South Pegmatite, Hagendorf, Waidhaus, Bavaria, Germany
• Leonie I Mine, Schleichershof, Auerbach in der Oberpfalz, Amberg-Sulzbach District, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany
• Solnhofen Limestone Quarries, Solnhofen, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen District, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany

• Friedrichssegen Mine, Lahnstein, Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

• Bönkhausen, Sundern, Hochsauerlandkreis, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
• Caspari Mine, Uentrop, Arnsberg, Hochsauerlandkreis, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
• Castor Mine, Loope, Engelskirchen, Oberbergischer Kreis, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
• Clemensberg Quarry, Hildfeld, Winterberg, Hochsauerlandkreis, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

• Heimberg Quarry, Wolfshagen, Lower Saxony, Germany
• Leppersdorf, Pulsnitz, Saxony, Germany
• Pöhla-Tellerhäuser Mine, Schwarzenberg, Saxony, Germany

For the rest of our German stock, see below.

Germany