Messel Pit

A fossilized jewel beetle, which still shows the color of the exoskeleton.
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Palaeochiropteryx, which resembles today's horseshoe bats and Old World leaf-nosed bats.
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Alleochelys, a transitional form between pond turtles and soft-shell turtles.
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Eopelobates, probably an ancestor of the European spadefoot toad.
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Messelornis, a relative of the crane, well-adapted to running.
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Messelophis, a small (50cm) terrestrial snake that belongs to the family of dwarf boas.
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A venomous lizard that was an ancient relative to the Gila monster.
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Today, a tour of the Messel Pit in Germany by way of a look at some of the incredible fossils it has produced. I only recently learned of this amazing cache of Eocene creatures from the program "The Link," which I mentioned in an earlier post. Then this morning I watched a National Geographic slideshow of some new finds, which prompted a search of the older finds. Until now, I had never seen a fossil of a bat, or a toad, or a snake - although I have held a turtle fossil in my hand at the Fossil and Gem Show I used to attend each year at George Mason University. I have posted some images of the Messel Pit finds above, but am delighted to share the link to the treasure trove: complete crocodiles and alligators, pangolins , ostriches, lemurs, horses - almost all collected by one man, Otto Feist, between 1972 and 1974! Finding the photographs was fun, but imagine the discovery of the actual fossils....with scales, feathers, fur and skin outlines, and in some cases color. Thrilling!