The Messel pit is a disused quarry near the village of Messel about 35 km (22 mi) southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of well-preserved fossils of the Messel Formation dating from the middle of the Eocene, it has significant geological and scientific importance. Over 1000 species of plants and animals have been found at the site. After almost becoming a landfill, strong local resistance eventually stopped these plans and the Messel pit was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 9 December 1995. Significant scientific discoveries about the early evolution of mammals and birds are still being made at the Messel pit, and the site has increasingly become a tourist site as well.
Palaeochiropteryx is an extinct genus of bat from the Middle Eocene of Europe and North America. It contains three very similar species – Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon and Palaeochiropteryx spiegeli, both from the famous Messel Pit of Germany, as well as Palaeochiropteryx sambuceus from the Sheep Pass Formation. They are usually found complete and exceptionally preserved, even retaining the outlines of their fur, ears, and wing membranes.
Paroodectes is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in Europe during the middle Eocene.
Diplocynodon is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian that lived during the Paleocene to Middle Miocene in Europe. Some species may have reached lengths of 3 metres (9.8 ft), while others probably did not exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft). They are almost exclusively found in freshwater environments. The various species are thought to have been opportunistic aquatic predators.
Archaeonycteris is an archaic bat genus whose fossilised remains have been found in Germany, France, England and India.
Archaeonycteridae is a family of extinct bats. It was originally erected by the Swiss naturalist Pierre Revilliod as Archaeonycterididae to hold the genus Archaeonycteris. It was formerly classified under the superfamily Icaronycteroidea (disused) by Kurten and Anderson in 1980. In 2007, the spelling was corrected to Archaeonycteridae and it was reclassified to the unranked clade Microchiropteramorpha by Smith et al.. The family Palaeochiropterygidae was also merged into Archaeonycteridae by Kurten and Anderson, but modern authorities specializing in bat fossils maintain the distinction between the two.
Palaeochiropterygidae is a family of extinct bats. It was originally erected by the Swiss naturalist Pierre Revilliod in 1917 after discoveries of Palaeochiropteryx fossils from the Messel Pit of Germany. Palaeochiropterygidae was merged into Archaeonycteridae by Kurten and Anderson in 1980, but modern authorities specializing in bat fossils maintain the distinction between the two. It was classified to the unranked clade Microchiropteramorpha by Smith et al. in 2007.
Saniwa is an extinct genus of varanid lizard that lived during the Eocene epoch. It is known from well-preserved fossils found in the Bridger and Green River Formations of Wyoming, United States. The type species S. ensidens was described in 1870 as the first fossil lizard known from North America. A second species, S.orsmaelensis, is recognised from remains found in Europe. It is a close relative of Varanus, the genus that includes monitor lizards.
Lesmesodon is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct family Proviverridae within extinct superfamily Hyaenodontoidea, that lived during the Early to Middle Eocene. It was found in France and in the Messel Pit in Germany. Lesmesodon was a weasel-sized carnivorous mammal.
Shinisauria is a clade or evolutionary grouping of anguimorph lizards that includes the living Chinese crocodile lizard Shinisaurus and several of its closest extinct relatives. Shinisauria was named in 2008 by Jack Lee Conrad as a stem-based taxon to include all anguimorphs more closely related to Shinisaurus than to Anguis fragilis, Heloderma suspectum or Varanus varius. Several recent phylogenetic analyses of lizard evolutionary relationships place Shinisauria in a basal position within the clade Platynota, which also includes monitor lizards, helodermatids, and the extinct mosasaurs. Shinisaurians were once thought to be closely related to the genus Xenosaurus, but they are now considered distant relatives within Anguimorpha. The fossil record of shinisaurians extends back to the Early Cretaceous with Dalinghosaurus, which is from the Aptian aged Yixian Formation of China. Two other extinct shinisaurians are currently known: Bahndwivici from the Eocene of Wyoming and Merkurosaurus from the Late Oligocene of Germany and the Early Miocene of the Czech Republic. An indeterminate shinisaurian is known from an isolated tail found in the Eocene aged Messel pit in Germany.
The Messel Formation is a geologic formation in Hesse, central Germany, dating back to the Eocene epoch. Its geographic range is restricted to the Messel pit. There it unconformably overlies crystalline Variscan basement and its Permian cover (Rotliegend) as well as Eocene volcanic breccias derived from the basement rocks. The formation mainly comprises lacustrine laminated bituminous shale renowned for its content of fossils in exceptional preservation, particularly plants, arthropods and vertebrates.
Suzanniwana is an extinct genus of iguanian lizards that lived in western North America during the earliest Eocene, approximately 56 million years ago. Two species are known from the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming: the type species S. patriciana named in 2009, and the species S. revenanta named in 2013. Suzanniwana lived during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, a brief period of global warming that resulted in warmer and drier conditions in the Bighorn Basin. It likely stemmed from a lineage that had migrated into the basin from regions farther to the south, following a latitudinal band of constant climatic conditions that moved northward as the planet warmed. Suzanniwana shares many skeletal features with modern casquehead lizards of the family Corytophanidae and may be a stem-corytophanid. It also closely resembles Geiseltaliellus, an iguanian from the middle Eocene Messel pit in Germany.
Geiseltaliellus is an extinct genus of iguanian lizards that lived in what is now western Europe during the Eocene. It belongs to the family Corytophanidae, which includes modern casquehead lizards. Many fossils are known from Germany, France, and Belgium, with the most well preserved coming from the Messel pit lagerstätte in Messel, Germany. German paleontologist Oskar Kuhn named the genus in 1944 after the Geiseltal valley where the first specimens were found, designating the type species Geiseltaliellus longicaudus. Three new species — G. louisi, G. lamandini, and G. grisolli — were named in the 1990s and 2000s on the basis of more fragmentary remains from France and Belgium, although G. louisi has since been synonymized with G. longicaudus. In 2009 the Messel pit specimens were recognized as belonging to a species distinct from that of the G. longicaudus specimens in Geiseltalt and were collectively reclassified under a new name, G. maarius.
Messelasturidae is an extinct family of birds known from the Eocene of North America and Europe. Their morphology is a mosaic that in some aspects are very similar to modern hawks and falcons, but in others are more similar to parrots. Initially interpreted as stem-owls, more recent studies have suggested a closer relationship to parrots and passerines. Their ecology is enigmatic.
Eoconstrictor is an extinct genus of booid snake, which supposedly had infrared vision, from the Eocene of Germany. The type species, E. fischeri is known from multiple well-preserved specimens found in the Messel Pit of Germany. It was originally named as Palaeopython fischeri by Stephan Schaal in 2004, but examination of the genus showed that it represented a distinct lineage; it was renamed as the new genus Eoconstrictor in 2020. In a subsequent study Georgalis, Rabi & Smith (2021) reinterpreted "Paleryx" spinifer from the Eocene Geiseltal Lagerstätte as the second species species belonging to the genus Eoconstrictor. Palci et al. (2023) named the third species belonging to this genus, E. barnesi described on the basis of fossils from the Geiseltal Lagerstätte.
Jens Lorenz Franzen was a German paleontologist. He was the head of Paleoanthropology and Quaternary at Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt and participated in fossil excavation in Germany. He worked with scientific excavations and discovered many previously unknown fossil mammal species.
Hassianycteris is an extinct genus of Early Eocene (Ypresian) to Middle Eocene (Lutetian) bats from the Hassianycterididae with four or five known species: the type, H. magna, and H. revilliodi, all found in the Messel pit, Germany, H. kumari, found in the Cambay Shale Formation, India, and the possible fifth species "H." joeli, found in the Kortijk Clay Formation, Belgium, which may instead belong to Onychonycteridae. The Messel bats Palaeochiropteryx and Hassianycteris are the first fossil mammals whose colouration has been discovered: both were reddish-brown when alive.
Eolacertidae is an extinct family of lacertoid lizards known from the Paleocene and Eocene of Europe. They are the closest known relatives of Lacertidae.
Paranecrosaurus is an extinct genus of lizard from the Eocene Messel Pits of Germany. It contains a single species, Paranecrosaurus feisti, originally described as a species of Saniwa. It was carnivorous, as indicated by the presence of the lizard Cryptolacerta as stomatch contents. It is placed in the family Palaeovaranidae.
This is an overview of the paleofauna of the Eocene Messel Formation as explored by the Messel Pit excavations in Germany. A former quarry and now UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Messel Formation preserves what once were a series of anoxic lakes surrounded by a sub-tropical rainforest during the Middle Eocene, approximately 47 Ma.
