Solnhofen Limestone

Solnhofen, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen District, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany

It is not easy to write a short piece about the Solnhofen Limestone – it is arguably the worlds most famous fossil site, a Konservat-Lagerstätten known for phenomenal preservation of fossils, even of soft bodied creatures and of soft tissues.

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

 

 

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Fossils from Germany - Minerals from Germany