Eppelsheim formation
The Eppelsheim Formation is a lithostratigraphic rock unit in the Rhine-Hessian part of the Mainz basin . These are siliciclastic deposits of the ancient Rhine , which are traditionally placed in the Upper Miocene ( Tortonium or Vallesium ). According to more recent findings, the sedimentation of this unit begins in the Middle Miocene ( Langhian ). Their earlier name Dinotheriensand (e) is based on the fact that they contain a relatively large number of fossil teeth and bones of the proboscis genus Deinotherium .
history
The traditional name “Dinotheriensande” goes back largely to the Darmstadt paleontologist Johann Jakob Kaup (1803-1883), who first described the large-sized trunk Deinotherium giganteum from these deposits in 1829 . It was found in a sand pit near Eppelsheim in the south of Rheinhessen. The genus name Deinotherium was then quickly transferred in a slightly modified form to the sandy deposits from which fossil material from these proboscis is still being recovered today. In addition, Kaup examined and named numerous other fossil mammals from the Eppelsheim site. In 2005 the Dinotheriensands were renamed the Eppelsheim Formation. The renaming according to the type occurrence near Eppelsheim took place in the course of the general adaptation of the names of the lithostratigraphic rock units in Germany to the international standard.
Ur-Rhine
The Ur-Rhine in the northern Upper Rhine area had a different course than today's Rhine in the younger Miocene around 15 to 10 million years ago . It did not flow in the northern Upper Rhine Graben and then along the southern edge of the Taunus from the east to the Binger Pforte , but from Worms in a westerly direction, then turned north and reached the Binger Pforte from the south. Today, along this route, there are numerous sloppy sand pits in which the sands of the Eppelsheim Formation were once mined as building material and many of which are also important fossil sites (see below ).
Fossil fauna
The Eppelsheim Formation has been known to paleontologists around the world since the 19th century for its content of fossil terrestrial vertebrates , especially fossil mammals . The finds come from several former sand pits in the south and west of Rheinhessen . These are mainly the sand pits near Westhofen , Dintesheim , Esselborn , Wahlheim , Kettenheim , Bermersheim , Gau-Weinheim and the Wißberg near Gau-Weinheim and the Steinberg (Napoleonshöhe) near Sprendlingen . The “classic” site near Eppelsheim, from which Kaup described Deinotherium giganteum at the time, was and is particularly productive . In addition to several species of proboscis (besides Deinotherium also " mastodons "), above all odd ungulates were recovered, especially primitive horses of the genus Hippotherium . Far less common ungulates are , and the least common are predators , insectivores , rodents , and primates . The approximately 28 centimeters long femurs of Paidopithex rhenanus regarded as the historically first discovery of a "primitive" apes (a gibbon -like agents). Scientific excavations have been taking place in the Eppelsheim location every year since 1996.
Two 9.7 million year old crowns of a left upper canine tooth and an upper right first molar, discovered in 2016 in the "classic" locality, were described by their discoverers - Mainz archaeologists - in a description published in 2017 as "two teeth of an apparently previously unknown great ape" interpreted. This classification of the finds, which appeared in a non- peer-reviewed house paper of the Natural History Museum Mainz , was immediately contradicted by several paleoanthropologists: the molar tooth resembled that of an ancient world monkey of the genus Anapithecus , which was common in the Rhineland at the time, outside of the great apes , the canine tooth did not originate at all from a primate, but is said to be a broken hump from the molar of a deer .
Finds from the Eppelsheim formation are kept and exhibited in a number of museums. These include well-known, large institutions such as the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt , the Natural History Museum in Mainz and the Senckenberg Nature Museum in Frankfurt am Main, but also small local museums such as the Alzey Museum . The Dinotherium Museum in Eppelsheim is specially dedicated to the “Dinotheriensands” .
further reading
- Heinz Tobien: Remarks on the taphonomy of the late Tertiary mammal fauna from the Dinotheriensands of Rheinhessen. Weltenburger Akademie, Festschrift on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Prof. Dr. Erwin Rutte, 1983, pp. 191-200
- Jens Sommer: Sedimentology, taphonomy and paleoecology of the Miocene Dinotheria sands from Eppelsheim / Rheinhessen. Dissertation at the Geosciences Faculty of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, 2007
- Frank Holzförster, Jens Sommer, Ottmar Kullmer, Herbert Lutz: The Upper Miocene Ur-Rhine near Eppelsheim (Rheinhessen) and its relation to the tectonics of the Mainz Basin. Mainz natural science archive. Vol. 46, 2008, pp. 37-52
swell
General
- Jens Lorenz Franzen, Oldřich Fejfar, Gerhard Storch, Volker Wilde: Eppelsheim 2000 - new discoveries at a classic locality. Pp. 217-234 in: JWF Reumer, W. Wessels (Ed.): Distribution and Migration of Tertiary Mammals in Eurasia. A Volume in Honor of Hans de Bruijn. Yoursea. Vol. 10, 2003 ( PDF 1 MB)
- Jens Lorenz Franzen: At the bottom of the original Rhine - excavations near Eppelsheim. Nature and museum. Vol. 130, No. 6, 2000, pp. 169-180
Individual evidence
- ↑ Madelaine Böhme, Manuela Aiglstorfer, Dieter Uhl, Ottmar Kullmer: The Antiquity of the Rhine River: Stratigraphic Coverage of the Dinotheriensande (Eppelsheim Formation) of the Mainz Basin (Germany). PLoS ONE. Vol. 7, No. 5, 2012, e36817, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0036817
- ^ Matthias C. Grimm: Contributions to the lithostratigraphy of the Palaeogene and Neogene in the Upper Rhine area (Upper Rhine Graben, Mainz Basin, Hanauer Basin). Geological Yearbook Hessen. Vol. 132, 2005, 79-112
- ^ Herbert Lutz, Thomas Engel, Bastian Lischewsky, Axel von Berg: A new great ape with startling resemblances to African members of the hominin tribe, excavated from the Mid-Vallesian Dinotheriensande of Eppelsheim. First report (Hominoidea, Miocene, MN 9, Proto-Rhine River, Germany). Mainz natural science archive. Vol. 54, 2017 (in print, full text as unglayed proof available on ResearchGate )
- ↑ Controversial bone find - Father Rhine, cradle of humanity? SpiegelOnline, October 25, 2017, accessed October 26, 2017
- ↑ Great ape teeth in Eppelsheim - sensational find not so sensational? SWR Aktuell of October 26, 2017, accessed on October 29, 2017