Fossil Pit Messel

Germany

The Messel fossil pit is protected today under the UNESCO World Heritage banner. However, before that happened it was worked for about 100 years as a brown coal and then oil shale quarry. Birgit remembers that her grandfather would go there and buy oil. The site was formed about 47 million years ago by a major vulcanic explosion ' During the intervening eons the pit gradually filled in and became the grave of many animal species. The fact that Messel is extremely rich in fossils has been known since about 1900, however, serious scientific interest arose in the 1970s. At that time commercial mining had ceased, the state of Hessen purchased the site and it was scheduled to become a landfill! Major resistance by scientists and the local population eventually killed that idea and in 1995 Messel was named a UNESCO world heritage site. It is the only site so named because of its fossil riches.

Picture of the burning slag heap at Messel in 1955. I remember seeing the smoke from this fire on the horizon some 30 miles away - shows you how old I am!

The Messel pit today

Before the state of Hessen acquired the property and charged the Senckenberg museum with administering the scientific evaluation of the site, the Messel pit was a popular site for amateur excavations. The efforts of one of these collectors, Otto Feist are documented on The Messel Pit Fossil Site. The website includes a description of the efforts to have the site protected, an explanation of the techniques developed to excavate and preserve fossils complete with a very interesting collection of pictures of fossils found by Mr. Feist.

Fossils

Fossil of a primitive horse

Jewelbug Fossil

Darwinius Massilae Fossil (Ida)

Darwinius massilae fossil und skull. At first this fossil was believed to be the famous "misisng link" Sorry, not true after all.       

For anyone who would like to see lots more pictures, go to the Google Messel pit site. There are some really neat pictures there!

Oettingen Heidenheim Donaufahrt Vienna Esztergom Budapest Bratislava Melk  Messel