{"id":9983,"date":"2025-11-08T10:42:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T09:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fossiland.com\/shop\/%product_cat%\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:19:02","slug":"30-years-of-the-messel-pit-world-natural-heritage-site-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fossiland.com\/en\/30-years-of-the-messel-pit-world-natural-heritage-site-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years of the Messel Pit World Natural Heritage Site: Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Thirty years ago, in December 1995, the Messel Pit near Darmstadt became Germany\u2019s first natural site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This makes 2025 a milestone year in three respects: 30 years as a World Natural Heritage Site, 50 years of systematic excavations by Senckenberg, and 150 years since the first fossil discovery. To mark the occasion, the Museum at the World Heritage Site is presenting the special exhibition \u201cFLOWER-POWER! Insects in a Blossom Frenzy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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For me, this anniversary brings back memories\u2014of an excavation, of my first attempts at specimen preparation, and of a time when science and overexploitation went hand in hand in Messel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why Fossils from Messel Are So Important for Evolution<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The fossils from Messel date back to the Eocene, about 47 million years ago. This was the period following the extinction of the dinosaurs, when mammals colonized the habitats that had been left vacant and rapidly evolved into many new forms. Messel illustrates this moment like no other place. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The reason is the exceptional state of preservation. The fine oil shale has preserved not only skeletons, but also the outlines of skin and fur, feathers, stomach contents, and even unborn fetuses. So you can see not only how an animal was built, but also what it ate and how it lived. The small prehistoric horses are particularly famous, including pregnant mares carrying their foals. <\/span><\/p>\n

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This makes Messel far more than just a beautiful fossil site. It is an almost complete window into an early mammalian ecosystem\u2014and one of the most important sources for understanding the origins of our own clade. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Almost a landfill<\/span><\/h3>\n

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Oil shale mining in Messel ended in 1971. After that, the large hole was supposed to be turned into a landfill for the Rhine-Main region. The fact that this never happened is primarily thanks to a tenacious citizens\u2019 initiative from Messel. <\/span><\/p>\n

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However, opposition also came from the scientific community. At the University of T\u00fcbingen, then one of the leading centers of German paleontology, Prof. Frank Westphal advocated for the preservation of the quarry. He was a vertebrate paleontologist and curator of the important T\u00fcbingen collection, and he brought the institute\u2019s influence to bear in the discussion. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The 1989 Archaeological Excavation<\/span><\/h3>\n

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In 1989, as a geology student at the University of T\u00fcbingen, I took part in one of the university\u2019s excavation campaigns. It was led by Eberhard \u201cDino\u201d Frey, who was working on his doctoral dissertation in T\u00fcbingen at the time on the structural morphology and biomechanics of crocodiles. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The density of fossils was impressive. Something turned up almost every time we split the damp oil shale. The primitive mudfish Amia was found in vast quantities. The highlight was a crocodile, Diplocynodon darwini, which was spent half a year being prepared by a taxidermist after its recovery. The following year, I worked as a research assistant at the institute and prepared fish. That was my first training in taxidermy. <\/span><\/p>\n

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A nice bit of coincidence: The very first specimen found in the pit, recovered about 150 years ago, was also a Darwin’s double-toothed crocodile.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Other Side: Nighttime Grave Robbers<\/span><\/h3>\n

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As exciting as the work was, it had a downside: uncontrolled, commercial overexploitation. The mine was a vast area that was virtually impossible to secure. <\/span><\/p>\n

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We dug during the day and documented every find. At night, however, we would sometimes see a faint light in the distance, deep down in the pit\u2014presumably coming from a makeshift tent. Illegal collectors were at work there, excavating fossils for the black market. <\/span><\/p>\n

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That’s why we couldn’t just leave the crocodile mentioned earlier lying there. It had to be retrieved that very same day. If it had been left out overnight, it probably would have been looted by morning. <\/span><\/p>\n

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How do you prevent a fossil from disintegrating?<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The fact that Messel fossils can be seen in collections and museums today is thanks to an invention that originated in the private collecting community. Oil shale consists largely of water. When it dries out in the air, the rock shrinks, cracks, and crumbles\u2014and the fossil along with it. <\/span><\/p>\n

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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, collectors developed a transfer mounting technique using synthetic resin. In simple terms, the process works as follows: <\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. The fossil is first exposed on one side of the slab, which is still damp.<\/span><\/li>\n\n
  2. This surface is coated with liquid synthetic resin.<\/span><\/li>\n\n
  3. After curing, the slab is turned over and the oil shale is removed from the back.<\/span><\/li>\n\n
  4. The fossil is now securely embedded in the plastic plate.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    The method was an important step. It can be applied to other sites\u2014anywhere where the rock is highly prone to drying out. Just how closely this technique is associated with Messel became evident decades later in court: In the dispute over the \u201cIda\u201d fossil, there was serious debate about the age of the synthetic resin method in order to narrow down the date of discovery (see below). <\/span><\/p>\n

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    Its counterpart in the east: the Geisel Valley<\/span><\/h3>\n

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    A site very similar to Messel is located in Saxony-Anhalt: the Geiseltal valley, west of Merseburg. Here, too, the fossils date from the Middle Eocene\u2014that is, from the same period, about 47 million years ago. Instead of being embedded in oil shale, however, they were found in lignite here. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    Between 1933 and 1993, tens of thousands of fossils representing more than a hundred species were unearthed at the open-pit mine\u2014including ancient horses, early tapirs, and terrestrial crocodiles. Experts consider the Geisel Valley to be just as significant as Messel. Because the collection was virtually inaccessible during the GDR era, it was long forgotten. Both sites share a common problem: their rock is unstable, and the fossils can only be permanently preserved using special embedding and transfer techniques. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    Record Prices: What a Messel Fossil Is Worth<\/span><\/h2>\n

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    A Messel crocodile, like the one we recovered in 1989, is now a sought-after collector\u2019s item. In December 2023, the Koller auction house in Zurich auctioned off a fossilized crocodile from Messel\u2014measuring approximately 55 by 135 centimeters\u2014from a private German collection. Hammer price: 200,000 Swiss francs, including the buyer\u2019s premium. Such prices explain why Messel fossils are so coveted\u2014and why provenance and legality play such a major role. No case illustrates this more clearly than \u201cIda.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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    The Ida Case: A Global Star with a Question Mark<\/span><\/h3>\n

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    No Messel fossil is more famous than \u201cIda.\u201d On May 19, 2009, the approximately 47-million-year-old primate skeleton (Darwinius masillae) was unveiled in New York\u2014amid great media fanfare; even the city\u2019s mayor was in attendance. Ida was marketed as the \u201cmissing link\u201d between humans and apes. The specimen was sold by Bad Homburg-based fossil dealer Thomas Perner\u2014for years the leading dealer in Messel fossils\u2014to the Natural History Museum in Oslo. Ida was named after the daughter of Oslo-based researcher J\u00f8rn Hurum. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    However, her scientific fame did not stand up to scrutiny. Later studies classified Ida as an adapiform\u2014a group that is more closely related to modern lemurs than to the lineage leading to apes and humans. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    Even more revealing is the dispute over ownership. A former landowner of the mine demanded a share of the proceeds from the sale\u2014as a co-owner of a \u201ctreasure\u201d under Section 984 of the German Civil Code (BGB). He lost his case in court because he could not prove exactly when and where Ida was found. Witnesses cited discovery years ranging from 1973 to 1983. Without proof that the discovery occurred during his period of ownership, he had no claim. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court finally dismissed the lawsuit in 2014 (Case No. 12 U 42\/13). Incidentally, the court clarified that fossils are not subject to mining law but rather to the law governing the discovery of treasure. <\/span><\/p>\n

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    What is legal today?<\/span><\/h3>\n

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    Anyone wishing to purchase a Messel fossil today must operate within a strictly regulated framework. In Hesse, such finds are subject to the Hessian Monument Protection Act. <\/span><\/p>\n

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