ive been here too long to leave

Result from the Zechstein sea #paleostream! This famous deposit from the late Permian of Central Europe (mostly Germany) has a special place in paleontology history and incidentally has a locality not even a km from where I sit right now.

The fauna of the Zechstein sea, or Kupferschiefer as it's also known, is largely marine in nature, as you can guess, with many fish, most commonly Paleoniscum, an animal so common that is makes up, up to 90% of some vertebrate assemblages. However coastal localities have...

some terrestrial inclusions as well, among them Protorosaurus, one of the earliest archosaurs. These animals lives in semi-arid to arid environments, sometimes compared to the coast of the Caspian sea. Out in the very salty sea we had reefs made of stromatolites which sometimes grew...

over 100 m tall. But of course focus is here on the shallows. When it comes to the research history of these deposits we can go back to Medieval times. Salt and metals have been mined from the Zechstein for centuries and the good preservation of many fishes and others fossils...

‘AYRO?’ harp cover