Schlierseerit

Schlierseerit is the name for a fossil resin that was found in the immediate vicinity of the Schliersee (Upper Bavaria). The name is only a working title and nomenclature is invalid.

The fossil resin was discovered in 1983 by a private collector who recognized the considerable scientific importance of his find and made the pieces available to various institutions and museums.

The fossil resin shows some similarities to fossil resins from other Mesozoic sites (including the walchowite known from Moravia ).

The mostly quite small pieces (diameter in the millimeter range) often contain organic inclusions. So could ciliates , scarf amoebae , bacteria , cyanobacteria and green algae are identified, were suspected of communities on the resin supplier, which is an extinct representative of the cycads could have acted.

The age of amber has long been dated to Upper Triassic ( Carnian , approx. 225 million years). More recent research, however, suggests a much younger age. Schmidt et al. on the basis of biostratigraphic and petrographic findings, an age of the Lower Cretaceous ( Cenomanium , approx. 95 million years). Still other sources give an age of 125 million years.

literature

N. Vávra: Fossil resins from the Alpine Mesozoic. In: Amber - Tears of the Gods. Pp. 351-356, Bochum 1996, ISBN 3-921533-57-0 .
Günter Krumbiegel and Brigitte Krumbiegel: Bernstein - Fossil Resins from all over the world. Fossils, special volume 7, Weinstadt 1997, ISBN 3-926129-16-6 .
H. Dörfelt and U. Schäfer: Fossil mushrooms in amber of the Alpine Triassic. Zeitschrift für Mykologie 64 (2): 141–151, Jena 1998. ( PDF )

Web links

The amber from Schliersee

Individual evidence

↑ u. a .: George O. Poinar: Life in Amber. Stanford 1992, ISBN 0-8047-2001-0 .
↑ Alexander R. Schmidt, Hilmar von Eynatten and Michael Wagreich: The Mesozoic Amber of Schliersee (southern Germany) is Cretaceous in age. In: Cretaceous research , 2001. (pdf, 0.7 MB)
^ W. Weitschat: Amber collection of the Geological-Palaeontological Institute & Museum, University of Hamburg. In: Amber - views - opinions. Gdansk - Warsaw 2006.

[1] u. a .: George O. Poinar: Life in Amber. Stanford 1992, ISBN 0-8047-2001-0 .

[2] Alexander R. Schmidt, Hilmar von Eynatten and Michael Wagreich: The Mesozoic Amber of Schliersee (southern Germany) is Cretaceous in age. In: Cretaceous research , 2001. (pdf, 0.7 MB)

[3] W. Weitschat: Amber collection of the Geological-Palaeontological Institute & Museum, University of Hamburg. In: Amber - views - opinions. Gdansk - Warsaw 2006.