Lagerstätte
Encyclopedia
Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained, and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the forces acting on them: these forces can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration...
deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossil richness or completeness.
Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds.
- Konzentrat-Lagerstätten (concentration Lagerstätten) are deposits with a particular concentration of disarticulated organic hard parts, such as a bone bed. These Lagerstätten are less spectacular than the more famous Konservat-Lagerstätten. Their contents invariably display a large degree of time averaging, as the accumulation of bones in the absence of other sediment takes some time. Deposits with a high concentration of fossils that represent an in-situ community, such as reefReefIn nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
s or oysterOysterThe word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
beds, are not considered Lagerstätten. - Konservat-Lagerstätten (conservation Lagerstätten) are deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms, where the soft parts are preserved in the form of impressions or casts. This is caused by incompleteness of biological recycling, for example where anoxic conditions, as in oxygen-free mud, has suppressed common bacteriaBacteriaBacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
l decomposition long enough for the initial casts of soft body parts to register. The individual taphonomyTaphonomyTaphonomy is the study of decaying organisms over time and how they become fossilized . The term taphonomy was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Russian scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere, to the...
of the fossils varies with the sites. Conservation Lagerstätten are crucial in providing answers to important moments in the history and evolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
of life, for example the Burgess ShaleBurgess ShaleThe Burgess Shale Formation, located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, is one of the world's most celebrated fossil fields, and the best of its kind. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils...
of British Columbia is associated with the Cambrian explosionCambrian explosionThe Cambrian explosion or Cambrian radiation was the relatively rapid appearance, around , of most major phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record, accompanied by major diversification of other organisms, including animals, phytoplankton, and calcimicrobes...
, and the Solnhofen limestoneSolnhofen limestoneThe Solnhofen Plattenkalk is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies...
with the earliest known birdBirdBirds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
, ArchaeopteryxArchaeopteryxArchaeopteryx , sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is a genus of theropod dinosaur that is closely related to birds. The name derives from the Ancient Greek meaning "ancient", and , meaning "feather" or "wing"...
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Preservation
Konservat-Lagerstätten preserve lightly sclerotizedSclerosis (medicine)
In medicine, sclerosis refers to the stiffening of a structure, usually caused by a replacement of the normal organ-specific tissue with connective tissue.Types include:...
and soft-bodied organisms that are not otherwise preserved in the usual shelly and bony fossil record; thus they offer a more complete record of ancient biodiversity and enable some reconstruction of the palaeoecology of ancient aquatic communities. In 1986 Simon Conway Morris
Simon Conway Morris
Simon Conway Morris FRS is an English paleontologist made known by his detailed and careful study of the Burgess Shale fossils, an exploit celebrated in Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould...
calculated that only about 14% of genera in the Burgess Shale had possessed biomineralized
Biomineralisation
Biomineralization is the process by which living organisms produce minerals, often to harden or stiffen existing tissues. Such tissues are called mineralized tissues. It is an extremely widespread phenomenon; all six taxonomic kingdoms contain members that are able to form minerals, and over 60...
tissues in life. The affinities of the shelly elements of conodont
Conodont
Conodonts are extinct chordates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from tooth-like microfossils now called conodont elements, found in isolation. Knowledge about soft tissues remains relatively sparse to this day...
s were mysterious until the associated soft tissues were discovered near Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Granton Lower Oil Shale
Oil shale
Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...
of the Carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
. Information from the broader range of organisms found in Lagerstätten have contributed to recent phylogenetic reconstructions of some major metazoan groups. Lagerstatten seem to be temporally autocorrelated, perhaps because global environmental factors – perhaps climate? – affect their deposition.
A number of taphonomic pathways may produce Lagerstätten. The following is an incomplete list:
- Orsten type preservation and Doushantuo type preservationDoushantuo type preservationThe preservational mode of the Doushantuo formation involves very early phosphatisation on a cellular level - with cells being replaced by phosphate before they degrade.-Occurrence:...
preserve organisms in phosphatePhosphateA phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in... - Bitter Springs type preservationBitter Springs type preservationThe Bitter Springs preservational mode is the preservation of microorganisms in silica, in shallow Precambrian waters.-Taphonomic processes:Silica is emplaced around the organisms very rapidly, before their cells can even collapse; the strong silica is able to withstand great pressures and...
preserves them in silica - Carbonaceous films are the result of Burgess Shale type preservationBurgess shale type preservationThe Burgess Shale of British Columbia is famous for its exceptional preservation of mid-Cambrian organisms. Around 40 other sites have been discovered of a similar age, with soft tissues preserved in a similar, though not identical, fashion...
- Pyrite preserves exquisite detail in Beecher’s Trilobite type preservationBeecher’s Trilobite type preservationThe preservational regime of Beecher's Trilobite Bed and other similar localities involves the replacement of soft tissues with pyrite, producing a three dimensional fossil replicating the anatomy of the original organism...
- Ediacaran type preservationEdiacaran type preservationEdiacaran type preservation relates to the dominant preservational mode in the Ediacaran period, where Ediacaran organisms were preserved as casts on the surface of microbial mats.- Exceptional preservation :...
preserves casts and moulds with the aid of microbial matMicrobial matA microbial mat is a multi-layered sheet of micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and archaea. Microbial mats grow at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces but a few survive in deserts. They colonize environments ranging in temperature from –40°C to +120°C...
s.
Important Lagerstätten
The world's major Lagerstätten include:| Pre-Cambrian Precambrian The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale... |
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| Bitter Springs Bitter Springs (fossil locality) Bitter Springs is a Precambrian fossil locality in Australia, which preserves microorganisms in silica. Its preservational mode ceased in the late Precambrian with the advent of silicifying organisms.-External links:*... |
1000–850 Ma | South Australia |
| Ediacara Hills Ediacara Hills Ediacara Hills are a range of low hills in the northern part of the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, around 650 km north of Adelaide. The area has many old copper and silver mines from mining activity in the late 19th century... |
630-542 Ma | South Australia |
| Doushantuo Formation Doushantuo Formation The Doushantuo Formation is a Lagerstätte in Guizhou Province, China that is notable for being one of the oldest fossil beds to contain highly preserved fossils... |
600–555 Ma | Guizhou Province, China |
| Mistaken Point | 565 Ma | Newfoundland, Canada |
| Cambrian Cambrian The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's... |
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| Maotianshan Shales Maotianshan shales The Maotianshan Shales are a series of lower Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu formation, famous for their Konservat Lagerstätten, or high number of fossils preserved in place... (Chengjiang) |
525 Ma | Yunnan Province, China |
| Sirius Passet Sirius Passet Sirius Passet is a Cambrian Lagerstätte in Greenland. The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte was named after the Sirius sledge patrol that operates in North Greenland. It comprises six localities located on the eastern shore of J.P. Koch Fjord in the far north of Greenland. It was discovered in 1984 by A.... |
518 Ma | Greenland Greenland Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for... |
| Emu Bay shale Emu Bay shale The Emu Bay Shale is a geological formation in Emu Bay, South Australia, containing a major Konservat-Lagerstätten . It is one of two in the world containing Redlichiidan trilobites... |
517 Ma | South Australia |
| Kaili Formation Kaili Formation The Kaili Formation named for nearby city of Kaili in the Guizhou province of southwest China, the Kaili formation is more than 200 meters thick with boundaries dated from the Lower–Middle Cambrian boundary to the early Middle Cambrian... |
513–501 Ma | Guizhou Guizhou ' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :... province, south-west China |
| Wheeler Shale Wheeler Shale The Wheeler Shale is a Cambrian fossil locality world famousfor prolific agnostid and Elrathia kingii trilobite remains... (House Range House Range The House Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is famous for Notch Peak, one of the tallest limestone cliffs in the world, and a fossil Lagerstätte of Cambrian age, which has an array of Burgess Shale type fauna, including Elrathia kingii, a trilobite that is... ) |
507 Ma | Western Utah Utah Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the... , US |
| Burgess Shale Burgess Shale The Burgess Shale Formation, located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, is one of the world's most celebrated fossil fields, and the best of its kind. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils... |
505 Ma | British Columbia, Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
| Kinnekulle Kinnekulle - External links :* *... Orsten Orsten The Upper Cambrian Orsten fauna includes fossilized organisms preserved in Orsten lagerstätten, notably at Kinnekulle and on the island of Öland, all in Sweden.... and Alum Alum Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are... Shale Shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering... |
500 Ma | Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
| Öland Öland ' is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants, but during Swedish Midsummer it is visited by up to 500,000 people... Orste and Alum Shale |
500 Ma | Sweden |
| Ordovician Ordovician The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period... |
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| Fezouata formation Fezouata formation The Upper and Lower Fezouata formations of Morocco are Burgess shale-type deposits dating to the Lower Ordovician, filling an important preservational window between the common Cambrian lagerstätten and the Late Ordovician Soom shale... |
c.485 Ma | Draa Valley, Morocco |
| Walcott-Rust quarry Walcott-Rust quarry The Walcott-Rust quarry is an excellent example of an obrution Lagerstätten. Unique preservation of trilobite appendages resulted from early consolidation of the surrounding rock, followed by spar filling of the interior cavity within the appendages... |
c.450 Ma | New York, US |
| Beecher's Trilobite Bed | 445 Ma | New York, US |
| Soom Shale Soom Shale The Soom Shale is a member of the Late Ordovician Cedarberg Formation in South Africa, renowned for its remarkable preservation of soft-tissue in fossil material.... |
435 Ma | South Africa |
| Silurian Silurian The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the... |
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| Wenlock Series Wenlock Series lagerstätte The Silurian lagerstätte preserved in the limestone Wenlock Series of Herefordshire, England, offers paleontologists a rare snapshot of a moment in time, about 420 Mya. In the formation, layers of fine-grained volcanic ash punctuate a sequence of carbonate muds that were accumulating in a marine... |
420 Ma | England |
| Devonian Devonian The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya... |
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| Rhynie chert Rhynie chert The Rhynie chert is an Early Devonian sedimentary deposit exhibiting extraordinary fossil detail or completeness . It is exposed near the village of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; a second unit, the Windyfield chert, is located some 700 m away... |
400 Ma | Scotland |
| Hunsrück Slates Hunsrück Slates The Hunsrück Slate is a Lower Devonian lithostratigraphic unit, a type of rock strata, in the German regions of the Hunsrück and Taunus. It is a lagerstätte famous for exceptional preservation of a highly diverse fossil fauna assemblage.-Geology:... |
390 Ma | Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany |
| Miguasha National Park Miguasha National Park Miguasha National Park is a protected area near Carleton-sur-Mer on the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec in Canada. Created in 1985 by the Government of Quebec, Miguasha was designated a World Heritage Site in 1999 in recognition of its wealth of fossils, which display a crucial time during the evolution... |
370 Ma | Québec, Canada |
| Canowindra Canowindra, New South Wales Canowindra is an historic township located near Cowra in the central west of New South Wales, Australia in Cabonne Shire. Canowindra is on the Belubula River. The curving main street, Gaskill Street, is partly an urban conservation area. At the 2006 census, Canowindra had a population of 1,499... , New South Wales |
360 Ma | Australia |
| Gogo Formation Gogo Formation The Gogo Formation in the Kimberley region of Western Australia is a Lagerstätte that exhibits exceptional preservation of a Devonian reef community.- Sedimentology :... |
350 Ma | Western Australia Western Australia Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east... |
| Carboniferous Carboniferous The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"... |
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| Bear Gulch Limestone Bear Gulch Limestone The Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana is a fossiliferous lagerstätte, a limestone layer laid down in the Mississippian epoch of the Carboniferous period, about 318 mya. This lens of limestone was laid down in a surrounding matrix that indicates a landscape of mudflats and braided channels in fresh... |
320 Ma | Montana Montana Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,... , US |
| Joggins Fossil Cliffs | 315 Ma | Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the... , Canada |
| Mazon Creek | 300 Ma | Illinois Illinois Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,... , US |
| Montceau-les-Mines Montceau-les-Mines Montceau-les-Mines is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.It is the second-largest commune of the metropolitan Communauté urbaine Creusot-Montceau, which lies southwest of the city of Dijon.... |
300 Ma | France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
| Hamilton Quarry Hamilton Quarry Hamilton Quarry is a Late Carboniferous lagerstätte near Hamilton, Kansas, United States. It has a diverse assemblage of unusually well-preserved marine, euryhaline, freshwater, flying, and terrestrial fossils . This extraordinary mix of fossils has led to the interpretation of an estuarine... |
295 Ma | Kansas Kansas Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south... , US |
| Triassic Triassic The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events... |
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| Madygen Formation | 230 Ma | Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east... |
| Ghost Ranch Ghost Ranch Ghost Ranch is a retreat and education center located close to the village of Abiquiu in Rio Arriba County in north central New Mexico. The conference center and lodgings at Ghost Ranch are run by the Presbyterian Church but open to the general public.-History:Ghost Ranch is part of Piedra... |
205 Ma | New Mexico New Mexico New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S... , US |
| Jurassic Jurassic The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by... |
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| Holzmaden Holzmaden Holzmaden is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany that lies between Stuttgart and Ulm.The ground in and around the city contains rich layers of well preserved fossils of the Jurassic period. The fossils are found in the 160 million year old Posidonia Shale and displayed in the local Museum Hauff... /Posidonia Shale Posidonia Shale The Posidonia Shale is a Lower Jurassic geological formation famous for its exceptionally well-preserved complete skeletons of fossil marine fish and reptiles. The Posidonienschiefer as German paleontologists call it, takes its name from the ubiquitous fossils of Posidonia bronni that characterize... |
180 Ma | Württemberg, Germany |
| Karabastau Formation | 155.7 Ma | France |
| La Voulte-sur-Rhône | 160 Ma | Ardèche, France |
| Solnhofen limestone Solnhofen limestone The Solnhofen Plattenkalk is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies... |
145 Ma | Bavaria, Germany |
| Canjuers Canjuers Canjuers is a calcareous plateau and a military camp in Provence in southeastern France.-Geography:Situated in the département of the Var in the Prealps of Castellane, on the south of the Verdon Gorge and to the north of Draguignan.... limestone |
145 Ma | France |
| Cretaceous Cretaceous The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the... |
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| Yixian Formation Yixian Formation The Yixian Formation is a geological formation in Jinzhou, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, that spans 11 million years during the early Cretaceous period... |
ca 125-121 Ma | Liaoning, China |
| Las Hoyas Las Hoyas Las Hoyas is a Cretaceous Konservat-Lagerstätten located near the city of Cuenca, Spain.It is dated as Barremian , and is mostly known from its exquisitely preserved dinosaurs, especially enantiornithines.- Taphonomy :... |
ca 125 Ma (Barremian) | Cuenca Cuenca, Spain -History:When the Iberian peninsula was part of the Roman Empire there were several important settlements in the province, such as Segóbriga, Ercávica and Gran Valeria... , Spain |
| Crato Formation Crato Formation The Crato Formation is a geologic formation of Early Cretaceous age in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin. It is an important Lagerstätte for palaeontologists. The strata were laid down mostly during the early Albian age, about 108 million years ago, in a shallow inland sea... |
ca 117 Ma (Aptian) | northeast Brazil |
| Xiagou Formation Xiagou Formation The Xiagou Formation is the middle unit of the Xinminpu Group. It is named for its type site in Xiagou, in the Changma Basin of Gansu Province, northwestern China and is considered Early Cretaceous in age. It is known outside the specialized world of Chinese geology as the site of a lagerstätte... |
ca 110 Ma | Gansu Gansu ' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east... , China |
| Haqel/Hadjula/al-Nammoura lagerstätten | ca 95 Ma | Lebanon |
| Santana Formation Santana Formation The Santana Formation is a geologic Lagerstätte in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin where the states of Pernambuco, Piauí and Ceará come together. The geological formation, named after the village of Santana do Cariri, lies at the base of the Araripe Plateau... |
108–92 Ma | Brazil |
| Smoky Hill Chalk Smoky Hill Chalk The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk formation is a Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte, or fossil rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. The Smoky Hill Chalk Member is the uppermost of the two structural units of the Niobrara... |
87–82 Ma | Kansas Kansas Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south... and Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River.... , US |
| Ingersoll Shale Ingersoll Shale The Ingersoll Shale is a Late Cretaceous Geological formation in eastern Alabama. Fourteen Theropod feathers have been recovered from it.... |
85 Ma | Alabama Alabama Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland... , US |
| Auca Mahuevo Auca Mahuevo Auca Mahuevo is a Cretaceous lagerstätte in the eroded badlands of the Patagonian province of Neuquen, Argentina. The sedimentary layers at Auca Mahuevo were laid down 80 million years before present and offer a view of a fossilized titanosaurid sauropod hatchery.At Auca Mahuevo dinosaur eggs... |
80 Ma | Patagonia Patagonia Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean... , Argentina |
| Zhucheng Zhucheng Zhucheng is a county-level city in the southeast of Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Weifang City and has a population of 1.06 million.-History:Zhucheng was originally known as Langya... |
65 Ma | Shandong, China |
| 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... |
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| Fur Formation Fur Formation Essentially the Fur Formation is defined as a clayey diatomite with a lage number of volcanic ash layers.The Fur Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the Limfjord region of Denmark from Silstrup via Mors and Fur to Ertebølle, and can be seen in many cliffs... |
55–53 Ma | Fur Fur Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal... , Denmark |
| London Clay London Clay The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for the fossils it contains. The fossils from the Lower Eocene indicate a moderately warm climate, the flora being tropical or subtropical... |
54–48 Ma | UK |
| Green River Formation Green River Formation The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes. The sediments are deposited in very fine layers, a dark layer during the growing season and a light-hue inorganic layer in winter. Each pair of layers is called a varve and... |
50 Ma | Colorado/Utah/Wyoming, US |
| Monte Bolca Monte Bolca Monte Bolca is a lagerstätte near Verona, Italy that was one of the first fossil sites with high quality preservation known to Europeans, and is still an important source of fossils from the Eocene.... |
49 Ma | Italy |
| Messel Oil Shale Messel pit The Messel Pit is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, about southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of fossils, it has significant geological and scientific importance... |
49 Ma | Hessen, Germany |
| Oligocene Oligocene The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly... –Miocene Miocene The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene... |
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| Dominican amber Dominican amber Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic. Resin from the extinct species Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics.... |
30–10 Ma | Dominican Republic Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries... |
| Riversleigh Riversleigh Riversleigh, in North West Queensland, is Australia's most famous fossil site. The 100 km² area has fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age... |
25–15 Ma | Queensland Queensland Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean... , Australia |
| Miocene Miocene The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene... |
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| Clarkia fossil beds Clarkia fossil beds The Clarkia fossil beds is a Miocene lagerstätte located near Clarkia, Idaho.The fossil beds were laid down in a lake roughly 15 million years ago, when a drainage basin was dammed by the flood basalts of the Columbia River Plateau. Narrow and deep, the lake's cold, anoxic water and rapid... |
20–17 Ma | Idaho Idaho Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.... , US |
| Barstow Formation Barstow Formation The Barstow Formation is a series of limestones, conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones and shales exposed in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California. It is early to middle Miocene in age, and lends its name to the Barstovian North American land mammal age... |
13.4 Ma | California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... , US |
| Ashfall Fossil Beds Ashfall Fossil Beds The Ashfall Fossil Beds of Antelope County in northeastern Nebraska are among the rare preservation sites called lagerstätten, which preserve ecological "snapshots" from a moment in time, due to extraordinary local conditions that have preserved a range of fossilized organisms undisturbed.The... |
10 Ma | Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River.... , US |
| Pleistocene Pleistocene The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and .... |
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| The Mammoth Site | 26 ka | South Dakota South Dakota South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over... , US |
| Rancho La Brea Tar Pits La Brea Tar Pits The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water... |
40 ka - 12 ka | California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... , US |