Fossil deposit

As a fossil deposit one is sedimentary rock unit , made up,

• due to a particular fossil frequency and variety and / or
• characterized by a particularly complete preservation of the fossils.

Accordingly, a distinction can be made between concentrate storage facilities and preservation storage facilities.

In the English-speaking world, the term "depository" is a foreign word for this. In German, on the other hand, the mining term “ depository ” refers solely to minable raw material deposits (minerals, ores, coal, gas, oil).

Some known fossil sites

Cambrian :

• Chengjiang Faunal Community (China): Age 525-520 million years
• Emu Bay Shale (Australia): Approx. 525 million years old
• Kaili fauna (China): Age 510–505 million years
• Burgess Shale (Canada): Age approx. 505 million years

Ordovician :

• Soom Shale (South Africa): Age approx. 435 million years

Devon :

• Bundenbach (Germany): Age approx. 350 million years
• Northwestern Sahara ( Erfoud , Morocco): Age approx. 350 million years
• Gogo Formation (Australia): Age approx. 350 million years

Permian :

• Bromacker (Germany): Age approx. 280 million years
• Korbach Column (Germany): Age approx. 255 million years

Jurassic :

• Holzmaden (Germany): Age approx. 180 million years (Lias or Black Jura )
• Solnhofener Plattenkalk (Germany): Age approx. 150 million years ( Altmühljura )

Chalk :

• Santana Formation (Brazil): Age approx. 110 million years
• Zhucheng (China): Age approx. 65 million years
• Zapata Formation (Chile): Age approx. 140–130 million years

Paleogene :

• Fayyum (Egypt): Age 40-30 million years Eocene to Oligocene
• Green River Formation (USA): Age approx. 57–38 million years (Upper Palaeocene to Upper Eocene)
• Messel Pit (Germany): Age approx. 47 million years ( Eocene )
• Geiseltal (Germany): Age approx. 47–43 million years (Eocene)
• Colline de Sansan (southern France): Age approx. 15 million years ( Miocene )

Neogene :

• Gongwangling site (China): Age approx. 1,150,000–650,000 years
• Nihewan (China): Age approx. 1,000,000–10,000 years
• Mosbach-Sande (Germany): Age approx. 600,000 years ( Cromer warm period )
• Zhoukoudian (China): Age approx. 500,000–200,000 years
• Salawusu (China): Age approx. 50,000–35,000 years
• Es Pouás (Ibiza, Balearic Islands): Age approx. 30,000–8,000 years
• La Brea (California, United States): Age approximately 2,500,000-10,000 years
• Binəqədi (Azerbaijan): Age approx. 120,000−96,000 years

Literature selection

• Giovanni Pinna, Dieter Meischner (Ed.): European fossil deposits . Springer, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-540-64975-1 .