Lagerstätte

A Lagerstätte (German: [ˈlaːɡɐˌʃtɛtə], from Lager 'storage, lair' Stätte 'place'; plural Lagerstätten) or fossil bed is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These formations may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present. Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the Ordovician Soom Shale, the Silurian Waukesha Biota, the Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the Carboniferous Mazon Creek, the Triassic Madygen Formation, the Jurassic Posidonia Shale and Solnhofen Limestone, the Cretaceous Yixian, Santana, and Agua Nueva formations, the Eocene Green River Formation, the Miocene Foulden Maar and Ashfall Fossil Beds, the Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, the Pleistocene Naracoorte Caves, the La Brea Tar Pits, and the Tanis Fossil Site.

Well-preserved basal arthropod Opabinia from Burgess Shale Lagerstätte

Types

Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds:^[1]

1. Konzentrat-Lagerstätten (concentration Lagerstätten) are deposits with a particular "concentration" of disarticulated organic hard parts, such as a bone bed. These Lagerstätten are less spectacular than the more famous Konservat-Lagerstätten. Their contents invariably display a large degree of time averaging, as the accumulation of bones in the absence of other sediment takes some time. Deposits with a high concentration of fossils that represent an in situ community, such as reefs or oyster beds, are not considered Lagerstätten.
2. Konservat-Lagerstätten (conservation Lagerstätten) are deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The individual taphonomy of the fossils varies with the sites. Conservation Lagerstätten are crucial in elucidating important moments in the history and evolution of life. For example, the Burgess Shale of British Columbia is associated with the Cambrian explosion, and the Solnhofen limestone with the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx.

 

Archaeopteryx specimen from Solnhofen Lagerstätte

Preservation

 

Stranded scyphozoans with the trackways Climactichnites from Blackberry Hill, Wisconsin (Cambrian). Scyphozoan in foreground is 10 cm (3.9 in) in diameter. Slab is in hyporelief.

Konservat-Lagerstätten preserve lightly sclerotized and soft-bodied organisms or traces of organisms that are not otherwise preserved in the usual shelly and bony fossil record; thus, they offer more complete records of ancient biodiversity and behavior and enable some reconstruction of the palaeoecology of ancient aquatic communities. In 1986, Simon Conway Morris calculated only about 14% of genera in the Burgess Shale had possessed biomineralized tissues in life. The affinities of the shelly elements of conodonts were mysterious until the associated soft tissues were discovered near Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Granton Lower Oil Shale of the Carboniferous.^[2] Information from the broader range of organisms found in Lagerstätten have contributed to recent phylogenetic reconstructions of some major metazoan groups. Lagerstätten seem to be temporally autocorrelated, perhaps because global environmental factors such as climate might affect their deposition.^[3]

A number of taphonomic pathways may produce Lagerstätten. The following is an incomplete list:

• Orsten-type and Doushantuo-type preservations preserve organisms in phosphate.
• Bitter Springs-type preservation preserves them in silica.
• Carbonaceous films are the result of Burgess Shale-type preservation
• Pyrite preserves exquisite detail in Beecher's trilobite-type preservation.
• Ediacaran-type preservation preserves casts and moulds with the aid of microbial mats.

Important Konservat-Lagerstätten

See also: List of fossil sites

The world's major Lagerstätten include:

Precambrian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Nonesuch Formation	1083-1070 Ma	Michigan, USA	A Mesoproterozoic lake containing exceptionally preserved limnic microbes.^[4]
Lakhanda Lagerstätte	1030-1000 Ma	Uchur-Maya Depression, Russia	A site preserving evidence of trophic interactions from the Boring Billion.^[5]^[6]
Bitter Springs	1000–850 Ma	South Australia	Preserved fossils include cyanobacteria microfossils.	An early Stromatolite
Dolores Creek Formation	950 Ma	Yukon, Canada	An Early Tonian site containing pyritised macroalgal fossils.^[7]
Chichkan Lagerstätte	775 Ma	Kazakhstan	A site from the transition between the prokaryote-dominated biota of the Early Neoproterozoic and the eukaryote-dominated biota of the Late Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic.^[8]
Doushantuo Formation	600–555 Ma	Guizhou Province, China	Spans the poorly understood interval between the end of the Cryogenian period and the Late Ediacaran Avalon explosion.	An ediacaran embryo-like fossil
Portfjeld Formation	570 Ma	North Greenland	A Middle Ediacaran biota from the continent of Laurentia exhibiting Doushantuo-type preservation.^[9]
Mistaken Point	565 Ma	Newfoundland, Canada	This site contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils.	Frondose ediacaran organisms
Ediacara Hills	555 Ma	South Australia	The type location the Ediacaran period, and has preserved a significant amount of fossils from that time.	Spriggina floundersi, a worm-like organism
Shibantan Lagerstätte	551-543 Ma	Hubei, China	A terminal Ediacaran fossil assemblage preserving life forms living just before the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition.^[10]
Gaojiashan Lagerstätte	551-541 Ma	Shaanxi, China	A lagerstätte documenting tube growth patterns of Cloudina.^[11]
Khatyspyt Lagerstätte	544 Ma	Yakutia, Russia	A Late Ediacaran lagerstätte preserving an Avalon-type biota.^[12]

Cambrian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Maotianshan Shales (Chengjiang)	518 Ma	Yunnan, China	The preservation of an extremely diverse faunal assemblage renders the Maotianshan shale the world's most important for understanding the evolution of early multi-cellular life.	Haikouichthys, a primitive craniate
Qingjiang biota	518 Ma	Hubei, China	This site is particularly notable due to both the large proportion of new taxa represented (approximately 53% of the specimens), and the notable volume of soft-body tissue preservation.	Duplapex, a hymenocarine arthropod
Sirius Passet	518 Ma	Greenland	A site known for its fauna, and that they were most likely preserved by a death mask.	Kerygmachela, a dinocaridid-like lobopodian
Sinsk Algal Lens	518 Ma	Yakutia, Russia	One of the oldest known Cambrian Lagerstätten.^[13]	A reconstruction of the large Lobopodian Siberion
Emu Bay Shale	513 Ma	South Australia	Noted soft tissue mineralization, most often of blocky apatite or fibrous calcium carbonate, including the oldest phosphatized muscle tissue.	Oestokerkus, a megacheiran arthropod
Kaili Formation	513–501 Ma	Guizhou, China	The middle part of the Kaili Formation, the Oryctocephalus indicus Zone, contains a Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätte with many well-preserved fossils known collectively as the Kaili Biota.	Pararotadiscus a cambroernid animal
Murero Lagerstätte	511-503 Ma	Spain	Thanks to the paleontological content, mainly trilobites, fourteen biozones have been established, the most precise biozonation for this time interval in the world. It also records in detail the so-called Valdemiedes event, the mass extinction episode at the end of the Lower Cambrian.^[14]	Eccaparadoxides trilobites showing sexual dimorphism
Blackberry Hill	~510–500 Ma	Central Wisconsin, US	This site preserves some of the oldest evidence of multicellular life walking out of the ocean, and onto dry land (in the form of large mollusks and euthycarcinoid arthropods).	Mosineia, a euthycarcinoid arthropod
Burgess Shale	508 Ma	British Columbia, Canada	One of the most famous fossil localities in the world. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At 508 million years old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints.	Anomalocaris, a predatory radiodont
Spence Shale	507 Ma	Northeastern Utah, Southeastern Idaho, US	A site known for its abundant Cambrian trilobites and the preservation of Burgess Shale-type fossils.	Hyoliths, most likely lophophorates
Linyi Lagerstätte	504 Ma	Shandong, China	A lagerstätte recognised for its exceptional preservation of arthropod limbs, intestines, and eyes.^[15]	Reconstruction of the arthropod species Thelxiope spinosa, known from the site
Wheeler Shale (House Range)	504 Ma	Western Utah, US	A world-famous locality known for its prolific agnostid and Elrathia kingii trilobite remains. Varied soft bodied organisms are also locally preserved, including Naraoia, Wiwaxia and Hallucigenia.	Elrathia sp. trilobites
Marjum Formation	502 Ma	Western Utah, US	A site known for its occasional preservation of soft-bodied tissue, and diverse assemblage.	Branchiocaris a pelagic hymenocarine
Weeks Formation	500 Ma	Western Utah, US	A site that is dominated by trilobites and brachiopods, but also comprising various soft-bodied organisms, such as Falcatamacaris.	Beckwithia, an aglaspidid trilobite relative
Kinnekulle Orsten and Alum Shale	500 Ma	Sweden	The Orsten sites reveals the oldest well-documented benthic meiofauna in the fossil record. Fossils such as microfossils of arthropods like free-living pentastomids are known. Multiple "Orsten-type" Lagerstätten are also known from other countries.	Cambropachycope, a stem-group mandibulate arthropod

Ordovician

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Fezouata Formation	about 485 Ma	Draa Valley, Morocco	It was deposited in a marine environment, and is known for its exceptionally preserved fossils, filling an important preservational window beyond the earlier and more common Cambrian Burgess shale-type deposits.	Aegirocassis, a giant hurdiid radiodont
Castle Bank	About 461 Ma	Llandrindod Wells, Wales	A unique environment deposited during the middle Ordovician that possibly shows iconic groups from Cambrian lagerstättes, like Opabiniids and Megacheirans, survived for longer than what was thought	Diagram of Mieridduryn, an opabiniid-like panarthropod
Winneshiek Shale	460 Ma	Decorah, Iowa	A Middle Ordovician site known for exceptionally exquisite preservation of conodonts, and the earliest eurypterids in the fossil record.^[16]	Pentecopterus is the oldest known eurypterid, hunting the shallow waters of Iowa during the Middle Ordovician.
Douglas Dam Member	460 Ma	Douglas Dam, Tennessee	Known for the preservation of chelicerate and crustacean arthropods, also contains possible land plants and fungi.	Chasmataspis, a horseshoe crab-like chasmataspid arthropod
Beecher's Trilobite Bed	460? Ma	New York, USA	Noted exceptionally preserved trilobites with soft tissue preserved by pyrite replacement. Pyritisation allows the use of X-rays to study fine detail of preserved soft body parts.	A pair of Triarthrus trilobites with pyritized soft-tissue
Walcott-Rust Quarry	about 455? Ma	New York, US	This site is an excellent example of an obrution (rapid burial or "smothered") Lagerstätte. Unique preservation of trilobite appendages resulted from early cementation of the surrounding rock and spar filling of the interior cavity of the appendages.	Isotelus gigas, a large asaphid trilobite
Big hill Lagerstätte	about 450? Mya	Michigan, US	A site known for its preservation of soft-bodied medusae (jellyfish), as well as linguloid brachiopods, algae, and arthropods (namely chasmataspidids, leperditid ostracods, and eurypterids).	Reconstruction of the chasmataspidid arthropod Hoplitaspis, one of the many arthropods found at this site.
Brechin Lagerstätte	450 Ma	Ontario, Canada	Known for preserving one of the most diverse crinoid fauna of the Katian.^[17]
Soom Shale	450? Ma	South Africa	Known for its remarkable preservation of soft-tissue in fossil material. Deposited in still waters, the unit lacks bioturbation, perhaps indicating anoxic conditions.	Promissum, a conodont known from rare soft-tissues

Silurian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Kalana Lagerstätte	~440 Ma Aeronian	Estonia	Known for well preserved fossils of algae and crinoids.^[18]
Waukesha Biota	~435 Ma Early Silurian	Wisconsin, US	Known for the exceptional preservation of its diverse, soft-bodied and lightly skeletonized fauna Includes many major taxa found nowhere else in strata of similar age. It is one of the few well studied Lagerstätten from the Silurian.	Parioscorpio, an enigmatic arthropod
Coalbrookdale Formation	~430 Ma	Herefordshire, UK	Known for the well-preserved fossils of various invertebrate animals many of which are in their three-dimensional structures. Some of the fossils are regarded as earliest evidences and evolutionary origin of some of the major groups of modern animals.	Offacolus, a euchelicerate
Earamosa lagerstätte	~425 Ma	Ontario & New York (state)	Known for preservation of both hard and soft bodied organisms in great detail.	Eramoscorpius, an early scorpion

Devonian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Rhynie chert	400 Ma	Scotland, UK	The Rhynie chert contains exceptionally preserved plant, fungus, lichen and animal material preserved in place by an overlying volcanic deposit. As well as one of the first known fully terrestrial ecosystems.	Lepidocaris is a primitive branchiopod crustacean
Heckelmann Mill	395 Ma	Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany	Heckelmann Mill preserves well preserved rhinocaridid archaeostracan phyllocarids,^[19] along with exceptionally abundant crinoid holdfasts from the late Emsian.^[20]
Hunsrück Slates (Bundenbach)	390 Ma	Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany	The Hunsrück slates are one of the few marine Devonian Lagerstätte having soft tissue preservation, and in many cases fossils are coated by a pyritic surface layer.	Schinderhannes bartelsi is the youngest known radiodont
Gogo Formation	380 Ma (Frasnian)	Western Australia	The fossils of the Gogo Formation display three-dimensional soft-tissue preservation of tissues as fragile as nerves and embryos with umbilical cords. Over fifty species of fish have been described from the formation, and arthropods.	Materpiscis is a ptyctodontid placoderm fish that is the oldest vertebrate known to give live birth
Miguasha National Park	370 Ma	Québec, Canada	Some of the fish, fauna, and spore fossils found at Miguasha are rare and ancient species. For example, Eusthenopteron is sarcopterygian that shares characters with early tetrapods.	Bothriolepis is an antiarch placoderm fish
Canowindra, New South Wales	360 Ma	Australia	An accidentally discovered Lagerstätte known for its exceptional preservation of Sarcopterygian and Placoderm fish.	Mandageria is a lobe-finned fish that is the NSW State Fossil Emblem in Australia.
Waterloo Farm lagerstätte	360 Ma	South Africa	The Waterloo Farm is a globally significant site, providing the only record of a high latitude (near polar) coastal ecosystem, overturning numerous assumptions about high latitude conditions during the latest Devonian.	Priscomyzon is the oldest known genus of lamprey

Carboniferous

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Bear Gulch Limestone	324 Ma	Montana, US	A limestone-rich geological lens in central Montana. It is renowned for its unusual and ecologically diverse fossil composition of chondrichthyans, the group of cartilaginous fish containing modern sharks, rays, and chimaeras. Other animals like brachiopods, ray finned fish, arthropods, and the possible mollusk Typhloesus are also known from the site.	Typhloesus is an engimatic animal that could be a potential mollusk.
Joggins Fossil Cliffs	315 Ma	Nova Scotia, Canada	A fossil site that preserves a diverse terrestrial ecosystem consisting of plants like lycopsids, giant arthropods, fish, and the oldest known sauropsid, Hylonomus.	Hylonomus, the oldest known sauropsid in the fossil record
Linton Diamond Coal Mine^[21]	312 Ma	Ohio, US	A site known for its number of prehistoric tetrapods, like the lepospondyl Diceratosaurus.	The lepospondyl tetrapod Diceratosaurus
Mazon Creek	310 Ma	Illinois, US	A conservation lagerstätte found near Morris, in Grundy County, Illinois. The fossils from this site are preserved in ironstone concretions with exceptional detail. The state fossil of Illinois, the enigmatic animal Tullimonstrum, is only known from these deposits.	Tullimonstrum is an enigmatic animal that lived in the waters off of northern Illinois
Montceau-les-Mines	300 Ma	France	The Bourbince flows northward through the commune and crosses the town. Exceptional preservation of Late Carboniferous fossil biota characterizes a Lagerstätte at Montceau-les-Mines.^[22] Fossil harvestmen are known from the site.^[23]
Hamilton Quarry	300 Ma	Kansas, US	This site is known for its diverse assemblage of unusually well-preserved marine, euryhaline, freshwater, flying, and terrestrial fossils (invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants). This extraordinary mix of fossils suggests it was once an estuary.	Ianthasaurus is a small sized edpahosaurid synapsid

Permian

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Franchesse	292 Ma	Massif Central, France	A Sakmarian seymouriamorph lagerstätte from the Bourbon l'Archambault Basin in the French Massif Central containing hundreds of complete seymouriamorph specimens.^[24]
Chemnitz petrified forest	291 Ma	Saxony, Germany	A petrified forest in Germany that is composed of Arthropitys bistriata, a type of Calamites, giant horsetails that are ancestors of modern horsetails, found on this location with never seen multiple branches. Many more plants and animals from this excavation are still in an ongoing research.^[25]	Large trunks of Arthropitys at Chemnitz
Mangrullo Formation	about 285–275 Ma (Artinskian)	Uruguay	This site is known for its abundant mesosaur fossils. It also contains the oldest known Konservat-Lagerstätte in South America, as well as the oldest known fossils of amniote embryos.^[26]	Stereosternum is an aquatic mesosaurid reptile
Toploje Member	273-264 Ma	Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica	This site preserves a high-latitude fauna in exceptional position before the large extinctions that happened later in the Permian.^[27]
Onder Karoo	266.9–264.28 Ma	Karoo Basin, South Africa	A high latitude, cool-temperate lacustrine ecosystem preserving detailed plant and insect fossils.^[28]
Huopu Lagerstätte	~255 Ma	Guizhou, China	A plant fossil site documenting floral dynamics between the end-Guadalupian and end-Permian extinction events.^[29]

Triassic

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Petropavlovka Formation	248 Ma	Orenburg Oblast, Russia	A site known for preserving oligochaetes, whose fossil record is extremely sparse.^[30]
Grès à Voltzia	245 Ma	France	A fossil site remarkable for its detailed myriapod specimens.^[31]
Polzberg	233 Ma	Austria	A site known for exceptional preservation of bromalites^[32] and of cartilage,^[33] deposited during the Carnian Pluvial Event.^[34]
Madygen Formation	230 Ma	Kyrgyzstan	The Madygen Formation is renowned for the preservation of more than 20,000 fossil insects, making it one of the richest Triassic Lagerstätten in the world. Other vertebrate fossils as fish, amphibians, reptiles and synapsids have been recovered from the formation too, as well as minor fossil flora.	Longisquama is a bizarre reptile with long growths protruding from its back.
Cow Branch Formation	230 Ma	Virginia, US	This site preserves a wide variety of organisms (including Fish, reptiles, arachnids, and insects).	Mecistotrachelos is a gliding reptile distantly related to archosauromorphs, likecrocodylians and dinosaurs
Ghost Ranch	205 Ma	New Mexico, US	Ghost Ranch is also known for a remarkable concentration of fossils, most notably that of the theropod dinosaur Coelophysis, of which it has been estimated that nearly a thousand individuals have been preserved in a quarry at Ghost Ranch.	The early theropod Coelophysis is known in large amounts at Ghost Ranch

Jurassic

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Ya Ha Tinda	183 Ma	Alberta, Canada	A fossil site notable for containing abundant and extremely well-preserved vampire squid, being the largest concentration of vampire squid fossils outside the Tethys Ocean,^[35] and for being deposited during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (TOAE).^[36]^[37]^[38]
Strawberry Bank	183 Ma	Somerset, England	A site from the TOAE documenting marine life during the recovery from the Triassic-Jurassic exti nction event as well as the turmoil of the TOAE.^[39] The oldest pseudoplanktonic barnacles in the fossil record,^[40] near-complete ichthyosaur skeletons,^[41] and evidence of ichthyosaur niche partitioning are preserved at this site.^[42]
Holzmaden/Posidonia Shale	183 Ma	Württemberg, Germany	The Sachrang member is among the most important formations of the Toarcian boundary, due to the concentrations of exceptionally well-preserved complete skeletons of fossil marine fish and reptiles.	A specimen of the ichthyosaur Stenopterygius crassicostatus with preserved young
Mesa Chelonia^[43]	164.6 Ma	Shanshan County, China	This site is notable because it contains a large turtle bonebed, containing specimens of the genus Annemys. This bonebed contains up to an estimated 36 turtles per square meter.
La Voulte-sur-Rhône	160 Mya	Ardèche, France	La Voulte-sur-Rhône, in the Ardèche region of southwestern France, offers paleontologists an outstanding view of an undisturbed paleoecosystem that was preserved in fine detail. Notable finds include retinal structures in the eyes of thylacocephalan arthropods, and fossilized relatives of the modern day vampire squid, like Vampyronassa rhodanica.	A rare well-preserved cephalopod, Rhomboteuthis
Karabastau Formation	155.7 Ma	Kazakhstan	This site is an important locality for insect fossils that has been studied since the early 20th century, alongside the rarer remains of vertebrates, including pterosaurs, salamanders, lizards and crocodiles.	Sordes is small pterosaur with visible soft-tissues preserved.
Tiaojishan Formation	165-153 Ma	Liaoning Province, China	It is known for its exceptionally preserved fossils, including those of plants, insects and vertebrates. It is made up mainly of pyroclastic rock interspersed with basic volcanic and sedimentary rocks.	Anchiornis is a genus of small, feathered anchiornithid dinosaur
Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry	150 Ma	Utah, US	Jurassic National Monument, at the site of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, well known for containing the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever found, is a paleontological site located near Cleveland, Utah, in the San Rafael Swell, a part of the geological layers known as the Morrison Formation. Up to 15,000 have been excavated from this site alone.	Allosaurus is the largest predator of the quarry
Solnhofen Limestone	145 Ma	Bavaria, Germany	This site is unique as it preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies. The most familiar fossils of the Solnhofen Plattenkalk include the early feathered theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx preserved in such detail that they are among the most famous and most beautiful fossils in the world.	The Berlin Specimen of Archaeopteryx lithographica
Canjuers Lagerstätte	145 Ma	France	This site shows a high amount of biodiversity, including reptiles, invertebrates, fish, and other organisms.	Belonostomus is a preadtory fish known for its elongated upper rostrum
Agardhfjellet Formation	150-140 Ma	Spitsbergen, Norway	The formation contains the Slottsmøya Member, a highly fossiliferous unit where many ichthyosaur and plesiosaur fossils have been found, as well as abundant and well preserved fossils of invertebrates.	Pliosaurus is a large thalassophonean pliosaurid which was informally known as "Predator X"

Cretaceous

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Las Hoyas	about 125 Ma (Barremian)	Cuenca, Spain	The site is mostly known for its exquisitely preserved dinosaurs, especially enantiornithines. The lithology of the formation mostly consists of lacustarine limestone deposited in a freshwater wetland environment.	Concornis is an early enantiornithean
Yixian Formation	about 125–121 Ma	Liaoning, China	The Yixian Formation is well known for its great diversity of well-preserved specimens and its feathered dinosaurs, such as the large tyrannosauroid Yutyrannus, the therizinosaur Beipiaosaurus, and various small birds, along with a selection of other dinosaurs, such as the iguanodontian Bolong, the sauropod Dongbeititan and the ceratopsian Psittacosaurus. Other biota included the troodontid Mei, the dromaeosaurid Tianyuraptor, and the compsognathid Sinosauropteryx.	Sinosauropteryx was the first non-avain dinosaur with evidence of feathers to have been recognized
Jiufotang Formation	about 122-119 Ma (Aptian)	Liaoning, China	This formation overlies the slightly older Yixian Formation and preserved very similar species, including a wide variety of dinosaurs such as the ceratopsian Psittacosaurus and the early bird Confuciusornis, both of which are also found in the Yixian Formation. Also notable are the very abundant specimens of the dromaeosaurid Microraptor, which is known from up to 300 specimens and is among the most common animals found here.	Microraptor had four wings and is believed to have evolved powered flight independently of true birds.
Shengjinkou Formation	about 120 Ma	Xinjiang, China	Part of the finds from this site consisted of dense concentrations of pterosaur bones, associated with soft tissues and eggs. The site represented a nesting colony that storm floods had covered with mud. Dozens of individuals could be secured from a total that in 2014 was estimated to run into the many hundreds.	Hamititan is a large titanosaurian sauropod
Xiagou Formation	about 120–115? Ma	Gansu, China	This site is known outside the specialized world of Chinese geology as the site of a Lagerstätte in which the fossils were preserved of Gansus yumenensis, the earliest true modern bird.	Gansus is among the earliest known modern birds
Paja Formation	130-113 Ma	Colombia	This site is famous for its vertebrate fossils and is the richest Mesozoic fossiliferous formation of Colombia. Several marine reptile fossils of plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, ichthyosauras and turtles have been described from the formation and it hosts the only dinosaur fossils described in the country to date; Padillasaurus.	Desmatochelys is a protostegid and one of the oldest known turtle fossils.
Crato Formation	113 Ma	northeast Brazil	The Crato Formation earns the designation of Lagerstätte due to an exceedingly well preserved and diverse fossil faunal assemblage. Some 25 species of fossil fishes are often found with stomach contents preserved, enabling paleontologists to study predator-prey relationships in this ecosystem. There are also fine examples of pterosaurs, reptiles and amphibians, invertebrates (particularly insects), and plants. Also known from this site is Ubirajara, the first non-avian dinosaur from the southern hemisphere with evidence of feathers.	Tupandactylus is a fossil pterosaur that was preserved with feathers and other soft tissues intact.
Jinju Formation	112.4–106.5 Ma	South Korea	An ichnofossil assemblage notable for preserving the longest Cretaceous lepidosaur trackway.^[44]	Tiny insect larvae are preserved at this locality
Romualdo Formation	108–92 Ma	Brazil	The Romualdo Formation is a part of the Santana Group and has provided a rich assemblage of fossils; flora, fish, arthropods insects, turtles, snakes, dinosaurs, such as Irritator, and pterosaurs, including the genus Thalassodromeus. The stratigraphic units of the group contained several feathers of birds, among those the first record of Mesozoic birds in Brazil.	Tapejara was a common pterosaur in Brazil during the Early Cretaceous
Puy-Puy Lagerstätte	100.5 Ma	France	A paralic site preserving a variety of ichnofossils,^[45] along with some vertebrate remains.^[46] The site preserves evidence of plant-insect interaction.^[47]
Haqel/Hjoula/al-Nammoura	about 95 Ma	Lebanon	Notable among these is the Lebanese lagerstätten of the Late Cretaceous age, which contain a well-preserved variety of different fossils. Some of the rarest fossils from this locality include those of octopuses.	Small animals like shrimp, octopus, stingrays, and bony fishes are common finds at these sites.
Agua Nueva Formation	94–92 Ma	Nuevo León, Mexico	The formation is noted for its qualities as a Konservat-Lagerstätte, with notable finds including the plesiosaur Mauriciosaurus and the possible shark Aquilolamna.	Mauriciosaurus is a short-necked plesiosaur
Smoky Hill Chalk	87–82 Ma	Kansas and Nebraska, US	A Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. Also known from this site are fossils of large bony fish such as Xiphactinus, mosasaurs, flying reptiles or pterosaurs (namely Pteranodon), flightless marine birds such as Hesperornis, and turtles.	Xiphactinus is famous for being found with another fish (Gillicus) preserved in its stomach.
Ingersoll Shale	85 Ma	Alabama, US	A Late Cretaceous (Santonian) informal geological unit in eastern Alabama. Fourteen theropod feathers assigned to birds and possibly dromaeosaurids have been recovered from the unit.
Auca Mahuevo	80 Ma	Patagonia, Argentina	A Cretaceous lagerstätte in the eroded badlands of the Patagonian province of Neuquén, Argentina. The sedimentary layers of the Anacleto Formation at Auca Mahuevo were deposited between 83.5 and 79.5 million years before the present and offers a view of a fossilized titanosaurid nesting site.	An egg from a titanosaurian sauropod
Zhucheng	66 Ma	Shandong, China	Zhucheng has been an important site for dinosaur excavation since 1960. The world's largest hadrosaurid fossil was found in Zhucheng in the 1980s. Other dinosaurs known from the area include the ceratopsian Zhuchengceratops (2010), the sauropod Zhuchengtitan (2017) and the theropod Zhuchengtyrannus (2011) which have all been described from deposits near and named after Zhucheng.	Zhuchengtyrannus is an Asian relative of the larger Tyrannosaurus
Tanis^[48]	66 Ma	North Dakota, US	Tanis is part of the heavily studied Hell Creek Formation, a group of rocks spanning four states in North America renowned for many significant fossil discoveries from the Upper Cretaceous and lower Paleocene. Tanis is a significant site because it appears to record the events from the first minutes until a few hours after the impact of the giant Chicxulub asteroid in extreme detail. This impact, which struck the Gulf of Mexico 66.043 million years ago, wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and many other species (the so-called "K-Pg" or "K-T" extinction).	Some of the fossil fish from the Tanis site

Palaeogene

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Menat	60 Ma	Auvergne, France	A Palaeocene maar lake containing three-dimensional plant remains.^[49]
Fur Formation	55–53 Ma	Fur & Mors, Denmark	Preserves abundant fossil fish, insects, reptiles, birds and plants. The Fur Formation was deposited about 55 Ma, just after the Palaeocene-Eocene boundary, and its tropical or sub-tropical flora indicate that the climate after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum was moderately warm (approximately 4-8 degrees warmer than today).	Tasbacka danica, immature sea turtle
London Clay	54–48 Ma	England, UK	Collected for close to 300 years, Plant fossils, especially seeds and fruits, are found in abundance. Some 350 named species of plant have been found, making the London Clay flora one of the world's most diverse for fossil seeds and fruits. The flora includes tropical taxa found in modern Asia, reflecting the much warmer climate of the early Eocene.	A Tynskya eocaena fossil
Eocene Okanagan Highlands	52 - 48 Ma	British Columbia, Canada & Washington, USA	Includes McAbee Fossil Beds, Princeton chert & Klondike Mountain Formation; Recognized as temperate/subtropical uplands right after the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum and spanning the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, preserves highly detailed uplands lacustrine fauna and flora.	A Florissantia quilchenensis flower, an extinct malvaceous genus from western North America
Green River Formation	50 Ma	Colorado/Utah/Wyoming, US	An Eocene aged site that is noted for the fish fauna preserved. Other fossils include the crocodilians, birds, and mammals.	Diplomystus and Knightia
Monte Bolca	49 Ma	Verona, Italy	A fossil site with specimens of fish and other organisms that are so highly preserved that their organs are often completely intact in fossil form, and even the skin color can sometimes be determined. It is assumed that mud at the site was low in oxygen, preventing both decay and the mixing action of scavengers from harming the fossils.	A complete Archaeophis proavus
Messel Formation	49 Ma	Hessen, Germany	This site 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.	Masillamys sp., an ischyromyid rodent
Kishenehn Formation	46.2 Ma	Montana	A Middle Eocene site preserving exquisitely detailed insect specimens in oil shale.^[50]
Quercy Phosphorites Formation^[51]	45-25 Ma	South-Western France	This site qualifies as a Lagerstätte because beside a large variety of mammals, birds, turtles, crocodiles, flora and insects, it also preserves the soft tissues of amphibians and squamates, in addition to their articulated skeleton in what has been called natural mummies.	Xenomorphia resurrecta parasitic wasps preserved in fly pupae
Florissant Formation	34 Ma	Colorado	A late Eocene (Priabonian) aged site that is noted for the finly preserved plant and insect paleobiota. Fossils are preserved in diatom blooms of a lahar dammed lake system and the formation is noted for the petrified stumps of Sequoia affinis	A Palaeovespa florissantia
Rauenberg	30 Ma	Baden-Württemberg, Germany	A marine fossil site with an Arctic-like invertebrate fauna and a Paratethyan vertebrate fauna displaying evidence of intermittent anoxia.^[52]
Enspel Lagerstätte	24.79-24.56 Ma	Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany	A Chattian maar deposit famous for its insect fossils.^[53]

Neogene

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
Dominican amber	30–10 Ma	Dominican Republic	Dominican amber differentiates itself from Baltic amber by being nearly always^[citation needed] transparent, and it has a higher number of fossil inclusions. This has enabled the detailed reconstruction of the ecosystem of a long-vanished tropical forest.^[54]	A larval Amblyomma tick preserved in amber.
Riversleigh	25–15 Ma	Queensland, Australia	This locality is recognised for the series of well preserved fossils deposited from the Late Oligocene to the Miocene. The fossiliferous limestone system is located near the Gregory River in the north-west of Queensland, an environment that was once a very wet rainforest that became more arid as the Gondwanan land masses separated and the Australian continent moved north.	Reconstruction of the diprotodont marsupial Nimbadon lavarackorum.
Foulden Maar	23 Ma	Otago, New Zealand	These layers of diatomite have preserved exceptional fossils of fish from the crater lake, and plants, spiders, and insects from the sub-tropical forest that developed around the crater,^[55] along with in situ pollen.^[56]	The teleost fish species Galaxias effusus.
Chiapas amber	23-15 Ma	Chiapas, Mexico^[57]	As with other ambers, a wide variety of taxa have been found as inclusions including insects and other arthropods, as well as plant fragments and epiphyllous fungi.	The holotype specimen of the millipede Anbarrhacus adamantis.
Clarkia fossil beds	20-17 Ma	Idaho, US	The Clarkia fossil beds site is best known for its fossil leaves. Their preservation is exquisite; fresh leaves are unfossilized, and sometimes retain their fall colors before rapidly oxidizing in air. It has been reported that scientists have managed to isolate small amounts of ancient DNA from fossil leaves from this site. However, other scientists are skeptical of the validity of this reported occurrence of Miocene DNA.	A leaf fossil from the beds after being exposed to oxygen.
Barstow Formation	19–13.4 Ma	California, US	The sediments are fluvial and lacustrine in origin except for nine layers of rhyolitic tuff. It is well known for its abundant vertebrate fossils including bones, teeth and footprints. The formation is also renowned for the fossiliferous concretions in its upper member, which contain three-dimensionally preserved arthropods.	A fossilized footprint made by a camel.
Shanwang Formation	18-17 Ma	Shandong Province, China	Fossils have been found at this site in dozens of categories, representing over 600 separate species. Animal fossils include insects, fish, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Insect fossils have clear, intact veins. Some have retained beautiful colours.
Sandelzhausen	16 Ma	Bavaria, Germany	A Middle Miocene vertebrate locality.^[58]
McGraths Flat	~16-11 Ma	NSW, Australia	Deposited in unusual conditions that record microscopic details of soft tissues and delicate structures. Fossil evidence of animals with soft bodies, unlike the bones of mammals and reptiles, is rare in Australia, and discoveries at McGraths' Flat have revealed unknown species of invertebrates such as insects and spiders.^[59]
Pisco Formation	15-2 Ma	Arequipa & Ica, Peru	Several specialists consider the Pisco Formation one of the most important Lagerstätten, based on the large amount of exceptionally preserved marine fossils, including sharks (most notably megalodon), penguins, whales, dolphins, birds, marine crocodiles and aquatic giant sloths.	Reconstruction of the macroraptorial stem-physeteroid whale Acrophyseter.
Hindon Maar	14.6 Ma	New Zealand	A maar preserving a Southern Hemisphere lake-forest ecosystem, including body fossils of plants, insects, fish, and birds,^[60] along with in situ pollen^[56] and coprolites of both fish and birds.^[60]
Pi Gros	13 Ma	Catalonia, Spain	An ichnofossil lagerstätte containing annelid, mollusc, and sponge trace fossils. The fossil site no longer exists due to having been quarried for the construction of an industrial park.^[61]
Bullock Creek	12 Ma	Northern Territory, Australia	Among the fossils at the Bullock Creek site have been found complete marsupial crania with delicate structures intact. New significant taxa identified from the Bullock Creek mid Miocene include a new genus of crocodile, Baru (Baru darrowi), a primitive true kangaroo, Nambaroo, with high-crowned lophodont teeth; and a new species of giant horned tortoise, Meiolania. New marsupial lion, thylacine, and dasyurid material has also been recovered.
Ashfall Fossil Beds	11.83 Ma	Nebraska, US	The Ashfall Fossil Beds of Antelope County in northeastern Nebraska are rare fossil sites of the type called lagerstätten that, due to extraordinary local conditions, capture an ecological "snapshot" in time of a range of well-preserved fossilized organisms. Ash from a Yellowstone hotspot eruption 10-12 million years ago created these fossilized bone beds.	A bone-bed containing the fossils of the basal rhino Teleoceras and the three-toed horse Cormohipparion.
Alcoota Fossil Beds	8 Ma	Northern Territory, Australia	It is notable for the occurrence of well-preserved, rare, Miocene vertebrate fossils, which provide evidence of the evolution of the Northern Territory's fauna and climate. The Alcoota Fossil Beds are also significant as a research and teaching site for palaeontology students.	Miscellaneous fossils of several macropod marsupials
Saint-Bauzile	7.6-7.2 Ma	Ardèche, France	A Late Miocene site preserving articulated mammal skeletons with skin and fur impressions.^[62]
Tresjuncos	6 Ma	Cuenca, Spain	A Late Miocene lacustrine Konservat-Lagerstätte containing fossils of diatoms, plants, crustaceans, insects, and amphibians.^[63]
Gray Fossil Site	4.9-4.5 Ma	Tennessee, US	As the first site of its age known from the Appalachian region, the Gray Fossil Site is a unique window into the past. Research at the site has yielded many surprising discoveries, including new species of red panda, rhinoceros, pond turtle, hickory tree, and more. The site also hosts the world's largest known assemblage of fossil tapirs.

Quaternary

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
The Mammoth Site	26 Ka	South Dakota, US	The facility encloses a prehistoric sinkhole that formed and was slowly filled with sediments during the Pleistocene era. As of 2016, the remains of 61 mammoths, including 58 North American Columbian and 3 woolly mammoths had been recovered. Mammoth bones were found at the site in 1974, and a museum and building enclosing the site were established.
Rancho La Brea Tar Pits	40–12 Ka	California, US	A group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years. Over many centuries, the bones of trapped animals have been preserved. Among the prehistoric species associated with the La Brea Tar Pits are Pleistocene mammoths, dire wolves, short-faced bears, American lions, ground sloths, and, the state fossil of California, the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis).
Waco Mammoth National Monument	65–51 Ka	Texas, US	A paleontological site and museum in Waco, Texas, United States where fossils of 24 Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) and other mammals from the Pleistocene Epoch have been uncovered. The site is the largest known concentration of mammoths dying from a (possibly) reoccurring event, which is believed to have been a flash flood.
El Breal de Orocual	2.5–1 Ma	Monagas, Venezuela	The largest asphalt well on the planet. Like the La Brea Tar Pits, this site preserves a number of megafauna like toxodonts, glyptodonts, camelids, and the felid Homotherium venezuelensis.
El Mene de Inciarte	28-25.5 Ka	Zulia, Venezuela	Another series of tar pits. These also preserve a similar assemblage of megafauna.
Naracoorte Caves	500-1 Ka	South Australia, Australia	A series of caves that preserve numerous pleistocene megafauna, like Thylacoleo, and is recognized as a World heritage site alongside the older, but geographically similar Riversleigh site.

See also

• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• Hoard, a concentration of human artifacts useful for similar reasons in archaeology

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Further reading

• Penney, D. (ed.) 2010. Biodiversity of Fossils in Amber from the Major World Deposits. Siri Scienfic Press, Manchester, 304 pp.
• . Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. 2003. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2005. – A catalogue of sites of exceptional fossil preservation produced by MSc palaeobiology students at University of Bristol's Department of Earth Sciences.
• Orr, Patrick J.; David J. Siveter (1 January 2000). "Three-dimensional preservation of a non-biomineralized arthropod in concretions in Silurian volcaniclastic rocks from Herefordshire, England". Journal of the Geological Society. 157 (1): 173–86. Bibcode:2000JGSoc.157..173O. doi:10.1144/jgs.157.1.173. S2CID 129635160. Retrieved 26 October 2006.