Lagerstätte

A Fossil-Lagerstätte (German pronunciation: – from 'storage, lair' and 'place'; pl.Lagerstätten) is a sedimentary deposit that preserves an exceptionally high amount of palaeontological information. Konzentrat-Lagerstätten preserve a high concentration of fossils, while Konservat-Lagerstätten offer exceptional fossil preservation, sometimes including preserved soft tissues. Konservat-Lagerstätten 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. Fossil-Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present.

Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the CambrianMaotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the OrdovicianFezouata Biota, Beecher's Trilobite Bed, and Soom Shale, the SilurianWaukesha Biota, the DevonianHunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the CarboniferousMazon Creek, the TriassicMadygen Formation, the JurassicPosidonia Shale and Solnhofen Limestone, the CretaceousYixian, Santana, and Agua Nueva formations and the Tanis Fossil Site, the EoceneFur Formation, Green River Formation, Messel Formation and Monte Bolca, the MioceneFoulden Maar and Ashfall Fossil Beds, the PlioceneGray Fossil Site, and the PleistoceneNaracoorte Caves and La Brea Tar Pits.