Messel Pit Fossil Site, Germany

Messel Pit is the richest site in the world for understanding the living environment of the Eocene, between 57 million and 36 million years ago. In particular, it provides unique information about the early stages of the evolution of mammals and includes exceptionally well-preserved mammal fossils, ranging from fully articulated skeletons to the contents of stomachs of animals of this period.

48 million years ago the Messel Pit (close to a coastline of an ocean on the northern hemisphere of our Earth) came into existence by a maar volcano eruption in a landscape consisting of granitic rocks of the Odenwald mountains. 

In the middle of the 19th century this area of Germany was discovered and identified as an oil shale area.

The site was exploited for petrol production up to 1971. Mainly the products went into the oil lamp industry.

After this industrial phase, a courageous fight by residents and scientists against a future use of this open air quarry as a waste disposal site took place and finally came to an end on 9th December 1995 when UNESCO accepted this site as an outstanding universal fossil site with earth history witnesses of Eocene time and inscribed it as Natural World Heritage site.

Scientific investigations up to today prove the uniqueness of the fossils, also permitting an interpretation for a subtropical rainforest environment around and inside the former crater lake and having this site as a unique window into the Eocene rainforest environment. 

As the Messel Pit is the former site of an oil shale mine, the land surface has been significantly disturbed. Paradoxically, if there had been no mine, the scientific values of the property would have never been discovered. 

The oil shale hides a wealth of excellently preserved fossils whose diversity and quality is simply unparalleled. 

Inscribed in 1995, Messel Pit Fossil Site was the first Natural World Heritage site of Germany.

A 22.5 ha buffer zone surrounding the property was defined in order to strengthen the integrity of the property and support its effective protection and management.

Today the site is a research area and guests get access across a visitor centre at the southern rim of the former open air quarry.

Criterion (vii): Messel Pit Fossil Site is considered to be the single best site which contributes to the understanding of the Eocene, when mammals became firmly established in all principal land ecosystems. The state of preservation of its fossils is exceptional and allows for high-quality scientific work.

Propalaeotherium, Messel Horse Skeleton.