The Geisel valley is a valley in Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, situated west of Merseburg

Merseburg

Merseburg is a town in the south of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on the river Saale, approx. 14 km south of Halle . It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese founded by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg....

, Saalekreis

Saalekreis

Saalekreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The district seat is Merseburg. It is bounded by the districts Kyffhäuserkreis , Mansfeld-Südharz, Salzlandkreis, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Nordsachsen, Leipzig and Burgenlandkreis. The district-free city of Halle is completely surrounded by the...

 district. It is named after the River Geisel

Geisel (river)

Geisel is a river of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.-See also:*List of rivers of Saxony-Anhalt...

 which rises in Mücheln and is a tributary of the Saale

Saale

The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale and Thuringian Saale , is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony, a tributary of the Leine.-Course:The Saale...

, just under 25 km long.
Its main settlements are Braunsbedra

Braunsbedra

Braunsbedra is a town in the Saalekreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approx. 11 km southwest of Merseburg.It was created after 1945 by the merger of Braunsdorf and Bedra....

 and Mücheln, which in future will merge into the 'collective municipality' of Geiseltal.

The Geisel valley was quarried for coal from the 17th century until 1994.

The valley is notable for its fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 record. It has yielded many important specimens of the Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...

 including Propalaeotherium

Propalaeotherium

Propalaeotherium was an early genus of perissodactyl ancestral to the horse endemic to Europe and Asia during the Middle Eocene.Its name means "before Palaeotherium", as it is the ancestor of Palaeotherium, another relative of early horses...

, Godinotia

Godinotia

Godinotia is an extinct genus of lemur-like prosimians belonging to the Adapidae family. It lived during the Eocene epoch , and its fossils have been found in the Messel Pit, Germany, showing that it already exhibited hominid features that would help make the primates such a successful group...

, Lophiodon

Lophiodon

Lophiodon is an extinct genus of mammal related to tapirs. It lived in Eocene Europe, and is closely related to Hyrachyus....

, Oxyaenoides

Hyaenodontidae

Hyaenodontidae is a family of the extinct order Creodonta, which contains several dozen genera.The Hyaenodontids were important mammalian predators that arose during the late Paleocene and persisted well into the Miocene...

, Asiatosuchus

Asiatosuchus

Asiatosuchus is an extinct genus of large crocodilian. It is believed to have been a basal crocodile. Specimens have been found from Russia, Belgium, France, Germany, Mongolia, and possibly Pakistan. It existed from the Danian stage of the early Paleocene epoch to the Lutetian stage of the Eocene...

, Geoemyda

Geoemyda

Geoemyda is a genus of freshwater turtles in the family Geoemydidae . It contains the following species:* Ryukyu Black-breasted Leaf Turtle, Geoemyda japonica* Black-breasted Hill Turtle, Geoemyda spengleri...

, Trogulidae

Trogulidae

The Trogulidae are a family of harvestmen with about 45 known species.Members of this species have short legs and live in soil. They have dirt attached to their bodies, to escape predators. Their body length ranges from 2 to 22 mm. The body is in most genera somewhat flattened and leathery...

and Psiloptera.

External links

• http://www.geiseltal.de/
• http://www.geiseltalmuseum.de/