During the annual excavation season, an average of 4\u20136 volunteer excavation assistants work under the scientific direction of the respective association chairman, currently Dr. G\u00fcnter Schweigert from the Stuttgart Natural History Museum, in consultation with the Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology<\/a> (SNSB-BSPG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research excavation of the Jura Museum Eichst\u00e4tt<\/a> in the slab limestone quarry of Ettling (Markt Pf\u00f6rring) mainly yields fossil fish of great scientific importance (see SNSB press releases). The preservation of these fishes is extraordinary and includes a 150 million year old fish fauna from the late Jurassic period with numerous, as yet undescribed species. The site provides a more detailed insight into the early evolution of modern fishes and their ecosystem. Ettling is a unique window into the history of the earth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also provides detailed insights into the formation of the Plattenkalke and the fossilization processes that led to the formation of the world-famous fossils. So far, these are poorly understood in detail. Many of the open questions can be answered by the data collection during the research excavation and accompanying analyses. First results have been presented at several international conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2008, 8-12 volunteers have been working on the fossil excavation every year. Interested laymen, hobby collectors and students actively help to generate data for research and thus make an active contribution to current research questions alongside the scientific community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the lime and dolomite quarry of Andreas Schorr near Wattendorf in the district of Bamberg, surprisingly very fossil-rich plate limestones of the upper Jurassic period were cut in 2000, which are comparable to the Solnhofen plate limestones. Since 2004, a team from the <\/a>Naturkunde-Museums Bamberg<\/a> has been conducting scientific excavations there, through which a large number of spectacular and scientifically valuable vertebrate fossils have been and are being recovered. This is a long-term finite deposit, so as many fossils as possible should be recovered promptly. This can only be done with the help of experienced volunteer excavation staff, as the museum’s human resources are too limited for this. In the former clay pit of Mistelgau near Bayreuth, numerous fossils of marine reptiles, primarily ichthyosaurs, have been found, recovered and prepared since the 1990s during regular scientific excavations by the Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken. The finds, mostly more or less complete but often partially disarticulated skeletons of animals of the genera Stenopterygius<\/em>, Eurhinosaurus<\/em> and Temnodontosaurus<\/em>, but also partial skeletons of sauropterygians of the genus Plesiosaurus<\/em> represent a unique collection of marine tetrapods, especially ichthyosaurs from the Upper Tarcian (Lower Jurassic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In cooperation with the SNSB, Prof. Dr. M. B\u00f6hme, Eberhard-Karls-Universit\u00e4t T\u00fcbingen, has been leading the fossil excavations in the clay pit Hammerschmiede in Ostallg\u00e4u since 2021. The site became famous for the discovery of the remains of the ape fossil Danuvius guggenmosi<\/em>, called “Udo”, which were discovered in 2019. The Hammerschmiede clay pit holds a rich fauna from the Middle to Upper Miocene period. The molasse sediments deposited there originate from river courses that once meandered in the foothills of the Alps. They contain the fossil remains of animals that lived in and along the river 11.6 million years ago, including fish, turtles, toads or beavers as well as elephants, rhinos, pandas, deer piglets and many more. The Free State of Bavaria supported the excavation with special funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the Hammerschmiede fossils are on display in the special exhibition “Molassic Park – Eine Expedition zu Bayerns Menschenaffen, Urelefanten und subtropischen W\u00e4ldern”. The special exhibition is a joint project of the Museum Mensch und Natur, the Botanical Garden M\u00fcnchen-Nymphenburg, the Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology, Naturkundemuseum Bayern and the Eberhard Karls University of T\u00fcbingen. “Molassic Park” travels to all SNSB regional museums<\/a> and can be visited there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research excavation in the Plattenkalke of Brunn\/Upper Palatinate Since the mid-1990s, the association \u201cBildungs- und Dokumentationszentrum Ostbayerische Erdgeschichte e. V.\u201d (Regensburg) has been conducting scientific fossil excavations in the former Pielenhofen forest quarry northwest of Regensburg in close contractual cooperation with and with the support of the Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[791],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-citizen-science-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14887,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions\/14887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snsb.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\nResearch excavation Ettling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFossil excavation in the Upper Jurassic plate Plattenkalke of Wattendorf<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
There are currently seven excavation volunteers working on the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n Fossil excavation Mistelgau clay pit <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFossil excavation Hammerschmiede clay pit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Fischfossil\"](\"https:\/\/snsb.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/8088e874-1024x683.jpg\")
![\"Fossilgrabung\"](\"https:\/\/snsb.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/5f47d78a-1-1024x768.jpg\")
![\"Grabung](\"https:\/\/snsb.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/c4495692.jpg\")