Episode 6: Tiny Horses, Galloping Crocs, and Fossilized Jungles!

The fossil record is pretty patchy. Most discoveries are tooth fragments, chunks of shell, or isolated slivers of bone and paleontologists are trained to eke out as much information from these precious fragments as they can. But some fossil deposits preserve more than just bones and teeth. Called "Lagerstätte" some rare deposites preserve traces of difficult-to-fossilized soft-tissues like feathers and fur. Some even preserve an animal's last meal before it entered the fossil record. In this episode of Past Time, Matt and Adam discuss Messel, a German fossil site that is one of the best examples of the biological and ecological knowledge preserved in these rare Lagerstätten deposits. Early bats, mini horses, and galloping crocodiles once roamed this extinct jungle in the heart of Europe. The exquisite preservation at Messel lets paleontologists travel back to this exotic ecosystem to tease out connections between the beginning of the Age of Mammals and modern tropical environments.