Description:
This is a very well preserved specimen. The skull and excellent
teeth display well. The skin, as well as all the fins are fully
exposed.
The
Solnhofen limestone is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that
preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms. Others, like
the early bird Archaeopteryx are preserved in such detail that they
are among the most famous and most beautiful fossils in the world.
During
the Late Jurassic, this area was an archipelago at the edge of the
Tethys Sea. This included placid lagoons that had limited access
to the open sea and where salinity rose high enough that the resulting
brine could not support life. Since the lowest water was devoid
of oxygen, many ordinary scavengers were absent. Any organism that
fell, drifted, or was washed into the lagoons from the ocean or
the land became buried in soft carbonate mud and was therefore wonderfully
preserved.
The
fine-grained texture of the mud silt forming the limestone from
the Solnhofen area (which is composed mainly of the towns of Solnhofen
and Eichstätt) is ideal for making lithographic plates, and
extensive quarrying in the 19th century revealed many fossil finds.
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