Brunn Quarry (general) (Jurassic of Germany)

Where: Eastern Barvaria, Germany (49.1° N, 11.9° E: paleocoordinates 40.4° N, 20.0° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Hybonoticeras beckeri ammonoid zone, Late/Upper Kimmeridgian (155.7 - 150.8 Ma)

• Finds of the index ammonite Sutneria subeumela in both the lower and upper part of the section constrain the age of the entire locality to the Subeumela Subzone of the Upper

•Kimmeridgian (Röper & Rothgaenger 1997; Schweigert 2007; Heyng et al. 2015).

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; calcareous mudstone

• Due to sea-level changes, the Plattenkalk facies progressed from east to west from the Upper Kimmeridgian to the Tithonian (Viohl 2015a), with laminated limestones

•being deposited in shallow depressions (“Wannen”) between the reef complexes. The locality of Brunn is situated at the southern rim of one of the smallest of these depressions, the Pfraundorf-Heitzenhofener Basin.

•... the rarity of the fully marine chondrichthyans supports the interpretation of Brunn as a rather isolated, marginal marine, probably lagoonal environment (Röper & Rothgaenger 1997; Heyng et al. 2015).

• The section of the Brunn quarry exposes c. 8 m of sediments, presenting an intercalation of massive limestone layers and eight finely laminated Plattenkalk sections (Röper et al. 1996; Röper & Rothgaenger 1997; Heyng et al. 2015). Whereas the massive limestone layers are almost devoid of macrofossils, fossil remains were otherwise found

•throughout the section in the laminated limestones. The latter layers range from 10 to 80 cm in thickness and are often very finely laminated, with 1 cm of Plattenkalk

•including up to 70 distinct limestone laminae (Heyng et al. 2015).

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by Monika Rothgaenger in 2002; reposited in the BSP

Collection methods: quarrying, mechanical

• Starting around 1990 some well-preserved fossils were discovered by collectors, and the first scientific excavations took place soon afterwards. These yielded many fossil plants and numerous invertebrate and vertebrate taxa.

•The specimen was found in summer 2002 during an investigation of the Brunn quarry by Monika Rothgaenger, who was at the time in charge of the privately organised scientific excavation in cooperation with the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology, Munich and the Solnhofen Museum, Bavaria. The specimen was subsequently prepared by freelance preparator Martin Kapitzke in Stuttgart before coming to the Solnhofen Museum in 2003. While permanently housed in the Solnhofen Museum as specimen BSP–1993–XVIII–2 (formerly curated as BSP XVIII–VFKO–A12), the material is owned by Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology, Munich, Bavaria, Germany (BSP).

Primary reference: O. W. M. Rauhut, A. López-Arbarello, M. Röper and M. Rothgaenger. 2017. Vertebrate fossils from the Kimmeridgian of Brunn: the oldest fauna from the Solnhofen Archipelago (Late Jurassic, Bavaria, Germany). Zitteliana 89:305-329 [P. Barrett/T. Cleary/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 187436: authorized by Paul Barrett, entered by Terri Cleary on 28.07.2017, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• many fossil plants and numerous invertebrate and vertebrate taxa
Cephalopoda
 Octopoda - Muensterellidae
Engeseriteuthis arcuatus2 Fuchs et al. 2019 octopus
Osteichthyes
 Halecomorphi - Ophiopsiidae
Ophiopsis muensteri Agassiz 1834 ray-finned fish
various specimens
Reptilia
  -
Reptilia indet. Laurenti 1768 reptile
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII 2/2009, two small dorsal vertebrae
 Testudinata -
Testudinata indet. Oppel 1811 turtle
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO-A1, anterior half of body, left forelimb, neck, lateral rim of skull
 Testudinata - Eurysternidae
Eurysternidae indet. Dollo 1886 turtle
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P10, partial skeleton with skull and neck
 Loricata - Atoposauridae
Atoposauridae indet. Gervais 1871 crocodilian
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO-A5, limestone slab containing six mid-caudal vertebrae, some chevrons, and several osteoderms
 Loricata -
cf. Machimosaurus sp. marine crocodile
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P14, single tooth
 Pterosauria -
Pterosauria indet. Kaup 1834 pterosaur
small assemblage of broken wing phalanges
Pterodactyloidea indet. pterosaur
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO-A3, right humerus
 Pterosauria - Ctenochasmatidae
Ctenochasmatinae indet. Nopcsa 1928 ctenochasmatid
jaw
 Pterosauria -
Ardeadactylus cf. longicollum Meyer 1854 pterosaur
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P13, right femur
Osteichthyes
 Actinopterygii -
Actinopterygii indet. Cope 1887
mentioned; undescribed
Actinopteri
 Pycnodontiformes - Gyrodontidae
Gyrodus hexagonus
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P8, mostly complete specimen; other specimens mentioned in passing
 Semionotiformes - Macrosemiidae
Macrosemius fourneti Thiollière 1854
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO–B 23, complete specimen; SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO–B 27, complete specimen
Notagogus sp. Agassiz 1833
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P1, juvenile complete specimen; SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P2, completely ossified ?adult
 Amiiformes -
Ainia armata bowfin
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P6, complete specimen
 Amiiformes - Caturidae
Caturidae indet. Owen 1860 bowfin
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO–B 30, poorly preserved specimen
Caturus sp. Agassiz 1834 bowfin
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P3 and SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P4, complete specimens with excellent preservation, probably a new spp
 Pachycormiformes - Pachycormidae
Orthocormus roeperi n. sp.1 Arratia and Schultze 2013
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII-VFKO B16 (holotype), complete specimen with soft tissue pres.
 Teleostei - Orthogonikleithridae
Leptolepides sp. Nybelin 1974
Orthogonikleithrus sp. Arratia 1987
 Leptolepidiformes - Leptolepididae
"Tharsis dubius" = Leptolepis, "Tharsis sp." = Leptolepis
"Tharsis dubius" = Leptolepis
"Tharsis sp." = Leptolepis Agassiz 1832
"although most of the specimens from Brunn are referable to Tharsis dubius (Blainville, 1918), many others certainly represent a different and new species of this genus"
 Elopiformes - Elopidae
 Ichthyodectiformes -
Allothrissops regleyi
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO C130 and SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII 42 VFKO C129
Allothrissops mesogaster Agassiz 1834
BSPG 1993 XVIII VFKO C132 and BSPG 1993 XVIII 42
 Pholidophoriformes - Pleuropholidae
Pleuropholis sp. Egerton 1858
 Aspidorhynchiformes - Aspidorhynchidae
Aspidorhynchus sp. Agassiz 1833
SNSB-BSPG 1993 XVIII P7, complete specimen, prob. new spp