Geiseltal (fossil site)

The Geiseltal fossil deposit is located in the former lignite district of the Geiseltal south of the city of Halle in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is an important site of now extinct plants and animals from the Middle Eocene period 48 to 41 million years ago. There is evidence that coal was first mined in the Geiseltal in 1698, but the first fossils only came to light by chance at the beginning of the 20th century. Scheduled scientific excavations began in 1925 by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Interrupted by World War II, the investigations can be divided into two research phases. Due to the increasing depletion of the raw material deposits, the excavations gradually came to a standstill in the mid-1980s and finally ended at the beginning of the third millennium. The lignite of the Geiseltal is subdivided into four main seams, the three lower ones were mainly fossil-bearing. The focus of the fossil distribution is in the southern and central Geiseltal. The finds include remains of plants and animals. A special feature are almost complete finds with leaves, fruits and stems, but also skeletons of vertebrates and remains of insects. One of the most famous finds is that of a complete skeleton of the prehistoric horse Propalaeotherium from 1933. Other vertebrates include even-toed ungulates, small mammals such as insectivores and bats as well as birds, crocodiles, tu

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