The myriad representatives of the group Insecta dominate modern day terrestrial ecosystems. The fossil record of Insecta dates back to the Devonian, with large diversification events and correspondingly diverse fossil record in the Carboniferous and Permian. The reconstructed ground pattern condition of Insecta includes a posterior trunk, abdomen, with eleven segments. Yet, no modern nor fossil form is so far known to possess...

The skeleton of the small artiodactyl Masillabune martini Tobien 1980 is a typical example of the mammalian skeletons excavated by private collectors in the famous Messel-Fossillagerstätte in 1970 s, long before the locality became a World Heritage Site. Although the skeleton was found during a private excavation by Thomas Martin, the well-preserved skeleton eventually found its way to a public museum, the Hessisches Landesmus...

The Messel Pit is a Konservat-Lagerstätte in Germany, representing the deposits of a latest early to earliest middle Eocene maar lake, and one of the first palaeontological sites to be included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One aspect of Messel that makes it so extraordinary is that its sediments are rich in different fossilised organisms – microfossils, plants, fungi, invertebrate animals and vertebrates – that...

Deep-time (=pre-Quaternary) maar lakes and certain other, hydrologically deep volcanogenic lakes, are often excellent Konservat-Lagerstätten representing unique windows into past biota and ecosystems. Many deposits from such lakes contain animal and plant remains in extraordinary preservation, often with soft tissues or fine morphological and anatomical details preserved. Such Lagerstätten have the potential to provide in-dept...

We examined the gut contents of a fossil giant pelobatid tadpole from the late Oligocene of Enspel, Germany, and discovered that it contains mainly pollen from spruce ( Picea ) but also pollen from pine ( Pinus ), beech ( Fagus ), and elm ( Ulmus ). Pollen in the gut of the fossil tadpole and other plant fossil records from this locality suggest that the regional vegetation around Enspel was characterised by mixed conifer and...

The association of pollinators with their host plants is a critical element of ecosystem functioning and one that is usually determined indirectly in the fossil record from specific morphological traits of flowers or putative pollinating animals. The exceptionally fine preservation at Messel, Germany, offers an excellent source of data on pollen from fossil flowers as well as preserved adhering to insects as direct evidence of...

Aim We re‐evaluated the proposition based on the present‐day distribution of honey bees (genus A pis ) that their centre of origin resides in Asia, with subsequent migration and diversification into E urope and A sia. In our research, we considered the so‐far largely ignored fossils distributed through a variety of late P alaeogene ( O ligocene) and early Neogene ( M iocene) deposits, aiming at a synthesis of both present‐day...