Eckfeld Maar (NHMN 1998 collection) (Eocene of Germany)

Where: Eifel, Germany (50.1° N, 6.8° E: paleocoordinates 47.0° N, 2.9° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Eifel Formation, MP 13 (48.6 - 40.4 Ma)

• "MP 13... recently dated at 44.3 +/- 0.4 million years BP (Mertz et al. 2000)" (Franzen 2004). Insects come mostly from horizons near marker horizon HT & KaLH.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crater lake; siltstone and shale

• "a small freshwater [crater] lake a few hundred meters in diameter" (Franzen 2004)
• ...laminitic "oilshales" and siltstones... with frequent turbiditic intercalations... plant macrofossils are ... distributed throughout the sequence under investigation. ... coarse and robust plant debris such as wood fragments and large fruits/seeds is concentrated in the turbiditic layers. (Wilde and Frankenhauser 1998).

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, adpression, original carbon

Collected in 1998

Collection methods: quarrying, surface (in situ),

• Repository: Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz

Primary reference: G. M. Dlussky, T. Wappler, and S. Wedmann. 2009. Fossil ants of the genus Gesomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from the Eocene of Europe and remarks on the evolution of arboreal ant communities. Zootaxa 2031:1-20 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 138911: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 01.02.2013

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Formicidae
Oecophylla eckfeldiana, Gesomyrmex germanicus
Oecophylla eckfeldiana Dlussky et al. 2008 weaver ant
PE-1998/3, 5, 8, 14, 16
Gesomyrmex germanicus Dlussky et al. 2009 ant
PE1998/1,9,13