Lagerstätte

A Fossil-Lagerstätte is a special type of rock layer that holds an amazing amount of information about ancient life. These layers can preserve fossils very well, sometimes even keeping soft parts like skin or internal organs that usually disappear over time. There are two main types: one that holds many fossils tightly together, and another that keeps fossils in excellent condition.

Scientists believe that some of these well-preserved fossils formed when dead animals were buried in environments without oxygen, which slowed down decay. This allowed even tiny details to be saved in the rocks.

Fossil-Lagerstätten exist from very old times, almost a billion years ago, up until today. Some famous examples include the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the Devonian Gogo Formation, the Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone, and the Eocene Green River Formation. These places give us valuable clues about how life looked and worked long ago.

Types

Palaeontologists distinguish two major kinds of these special fossil sites.

1. Konzentrat-Lagerstätten are places where many fossils, like bones, are found together. These are not as famous as the other kind, but they still help scientists learn about the past.
2. Konservat-Lagerstätten are special because they preserve fossils extremely well, sometimes even showing soft parts of ancient organisms. These sites help us understand important moments in the history of life. For example, the Burgess Shale in British Columbia is linked to a time when many new kinds of life appeared, and the Solnhofen limestone contains the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx.

Preservation

Konservat-Lagerstätten are special places where fossils are preserved in amazing detail. They show us creatures that normally wouldn't be fossilized, like soft-bodied animals, giving us a fuller picture of life from long ago. These fossils help scientists understand how ancient animals lived and evolved.

Fossils in these special places can be preserved in many ways. Some are replaced with minerals like phosphate or silica, while others are coated with materials such as carbon or aluminosilicate. Some fossils are preserved in pyrite or calcite, and others are encased in amber from tree resin. These different methods help keep tiny details of the organisms, offering us a glimpse into the past.

Examples

For a more comprehensive list, see List of lagerstätten.

Site(s)	Age	Location	Significance	Notable fossils/organisms
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.
Mistaken Point (including the Drook, Briscal, Mistaken Point, Trepassey, and Fermeuse Formations.)	565 Ma	Newfoundland, Canada	This site contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils.
Ediacara Hills	555 Ma	South Australia	The type location the Ediacaran period, and has preserved a significant amount of fossils from that time.
Maotianshan Shales (Chengjiang)	518 Ma	Yunnan, China	The preservation of an extremely diverse faunal assemblage renders the Maotianshan Shales the world's most important formation for understanding the evolution of early multi-cellular life. Microscopic animals like Yicaris are preserved here, showing the presence of an Orsten-type deposit within the formation. This site also includes the Xiazhuang biota.
Sirius Passet	523-518 Ma	Greenland, Denmark	A site known for its fauna, and that they were most likely preserved by a death mask. It is a part of the larger Buen Formation, and has a fauna similar to the Maotianshan shales.
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.
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.
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.
Winneshiek Shale	460 Ma	Decorah, Iowa, US	A Middle Ordovician site confined to a large impact Crater that is known for exceptionally exquisite preservation of conodonts, bivalved arthropods, and the earliest eurypterids in the fossil record.
Beecher's Trilobite Bed	460? Ma	New York, US	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.
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.
Waukesha Biota (Brandon Bridge Formation)	~435 Ma Early Silurian	Wisconsin, US	Well-studied site 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 was one of the first fossil sites with soft bodied preservation known to science.
Herefordshire Lagerstätte (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. Fossils are preserved within volcanic ash, because of that sometimes this site has been compared to Pompeii. Some of the fossils are regarded as earliest evidences and evolutionary origin of some of the major groups of modern animals.
Bertie Group	422.9-416 Ma	Ontario & New York State, Canada and US	This limestone have produced thousands of fossil eurypterids, such as giant Acutiramus and well-known Eurypterus, as well as other fauna like scorpions and fish.
Rhynie chert	400 Ma	Scotland, UK	The Rhynie chert contains exceptionally preserved plant, fungus, lichen and animal material (euthycarcinoids, branchiopods, arachnids, hexapods, etc.) preserved in place by an overlying volcanic deposit and hot springs. As well as one of the first known fully terrestrial ecosystems.
Hunsrück Slates (Bundenbach)		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.
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.
Miguasha National Park (Escuminac Formation)	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.
Waterloo Farm Lagerstätte (Witpoort Formation)	360 Ma	South Africa	Important site that providing the only record of a high latitude (near polar) coastal ecosystem, overturning numerous assumptions about high latitude conditions during the latest Devonian.
East Kirkton Quarry	335 Ma	West Lothian, Scotland, UK	This site has produced numerous well-preserved fossils of early tetrapods like temnospondyls or reptiliomorphs, and large arthropods like scorpions or eurypterids.
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.
Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Joggins Formation)	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.
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 fossils were preserved in a large delta system that covered much of the area. The state fossil of Illinois, the enigmatic animal Tullimonstrum, is only known from these deposits.
Montceau-les-Mines	300 Ma	France	Exceptional preservation of Late Carboniferous fossil biota are known, including various vertebrates and arthropods, as well as plants.
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.
Kupferschiefer	259–255 Ma	(North-Central Europe) Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia	This site deposited in an open marine and shallow marine environment provides fossils of reptiles as well as many fish.
Luoping Biota (Guanling Formation)	~247-245 Ma	Yunnan, China	Various marine animals are preserved in this site, showing how marine ecosystem recovered after Permian extinction.
Grès à Voltzia	245 Ma	France	A fossil site which have various arthropods as well as other fauna, remarkable for its detailed myriapod specimens. It also contains the earliest known aphid fossils.
Besano Formation	242 Ma	Alps, Italy and  Switzerland	This formation is designated as a World Heritage Site, as it is famous for its preservation of Middle Triassic marine life including fish and aquatic reptiles.
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.
Cow Branch Formation	230 Ma	Virginia, US	This site preserves a wide variety of organisms (including Fish, reptiles, arachnids, and insects).
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. It was also deposited during the TOAE.
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.
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.
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. Forms a part of the Yanliao Biota.
Solnhofen Archipelago Lagerstätten (including the Altmühltal, Painten, Torleite, and Mörnsheim Formations)	149-148 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.
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.
Jehol Biota	125–119 Ma	Northeast China	Contains at minimum the Yixian and Jiufotang formations, probably also the Dabeigou, Huajiying, and maybe the Sinuiju series of North Korea. This biota is known for its exceptional preservation of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, fish, insects and other animals within a high altitude lake with periodic volcaniclastics from nearby volcanoes.
Santana Group	113-92 Ma	northeast Brazil	Contains the Crato and Romualdo Formations Both sites are known for their exceptional preservation of pterosaurs, fish, invertebrates, and plants from a lake environment.
Sannine Formation (Haqel, Hjoula, and al-Nammoura lagerstätten)	95-94 Ma	Lebanon	Famous Lebanese konservat-lagerstätten of the Late Cretaceous (middle to late Cenomanian) age, which contain a well-preserved variety of different fossils. Small animals like shrimp, octopus, stingrays, and bony fishes are common finds at these sites. Some of the rarest fossils from this locality include those of octopuses.
Burmese amber	101-99 Ma (latest Albian/earliest Cenomanian)	Myanmar	More than 1,000 species of taxa have been described from ambers from Hukawng Valley. While it is important for understanding the evolution of biota, mainly insects, during the Cretaceous period, it is also extremely controversial by facing ethical issues due to its association with conflicts and labor conditions.
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. Also is considered a potential "Liberation lagerstätte"see notes
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.
Monte Bolca	50-49 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.
Messel Formation	47 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.
Baltic amber	47-35 Ma (Lutetian to Priabonian)	Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland & Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia	The largest amber deposit on Earth, this amber is part of the Prussian Formation, and preserves a high diversity of exceptionally well-preserved fossil invertebrates, plants, and small vertebrates that inhabited eastern Europe during the warmer, subtropical conditions of the middle Eocene. It is the largest world's single largest repository of fossil insects.
Riversleigh	25–5.33 Ma	Queensland, Australia	This locality is recognised for the series of well preserved fossils deposited from the Late Oligocene to the late 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.