Name: Grübe Messel
Location: Germany
Age: Eocene		 Fossil Lagerstatten logo

Grübe Messel

The Messel oil shale was formed 49 million years ago in the Eocene. The environment is interpreted as having been a large, deep lake or series of connected lakes in a subtropical climate, formed when tectonic activity and subsidence in the Rhine trench produced a depression, which filled with water.

  1. Location and Geology
  2. Fauna and Flora
  3. Preservation and Taphonomy
  4. Museums and Links

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Section author: Matt Riley

This section is part of a Fossil Lagerstätten web site which has been built up as a result of the efforts of the 2002-3 MSc Palaeobiology class in the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Bristol, as part of a course in Scientific Communication.

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