PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons
↓ More info below ↓

In 1800s, miners began working in exposed deposits of mud near the town of Messel, Germany. They were extracting oil from the rock and along with the oil, they found beautifully preserved fossils of animals from the Eocene. What happened to these Eocene animals? And why were their remains so exquisitely preserved?

Two additional notes!
At 00:56, we incorrectly labelled a Darwinius fossil as Thaumaturus. Thaumaturus was a fish and the fossil we show is definitely not a fish.
Also, an additional image credit is required: Dmitry Bogdanov illustrated the fish we used to show scavengers.

Produced for PBS Digital Studios.

Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Aldo Espinosa Zúñiga, Betsy Radley, Svetlana Pylaeva, Colin Sylvester, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Jose Garcia, Noah offitzer, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Wilco Verweij, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Elysha Nygård, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, Sapjes, Dave, Daisuke Goto, Zachary Winkler, Hubert Rady, Yuntao Zhou, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, phil parker, Ruben Winter, Ron Harvey Jr, Joshua Mitchell, Johnny Li, Katie Fichtner, Budjarn Lambeth, Jacob Gerke, Katie M Vasilescu, Brandon Burke, Alex Yan, Jordon Sokoll

If you'd like to support the channel, head over to   / eons   and pledge for some cool rewards!

Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook   / eonsshow  
Twitter   / eonsshow  
Instagram   / eonsshow  

References:
Kling, George W., et al. "The 1986 lake nyos gas disaster in cameroon, west Africa." Science 236.4798 (1987): 169175.
Vaselli, Orlando, et al. "The “evil’s winds”(mazukus) at Nyiragongo Volcano (Democratic Republic of Congo)." Acta Vulcanol 2003 (2002): 1415.
Zhang, Youxue. "Dynamics of CO2driven lake eruptions." Nature 379.6560 (1996): 57.
Storch, Gerhard, Bernard Sigé, and Jörg Habersetzer. "Tachypteron franzeni n. gen., n. sp., earliest emballonurid bat from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Mammalia, Chiroptera)." Paläontologische Zeitschrift 76.2 (2002): 189199.
Franzen, Jens Lorenz, Christine Aurich, and Jörg Habersetzer. "Description of a well preserved fetus of the European Eocene Equoid Eurohippus messelensis." PloS one 10.10 (2015): e0137985.
Franzen, J. L. "Exceptional preservation of Eocene vertebrates in the lake deposit of Grube Messel (West Germany)." Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 311.1148 (1985): 181186.
Lenz, Olaf K., et al. "New palynologybased astronomical and revised 40 Ar/39 Ar ages for the Eocene maar lake of Messel (Germany)." International Journal of Earth Sciences 104.3 (2015): 873889.
Joyce, Walter G., et al. "Caught in the act: the first record of copulating fossil vertebrates." Biology Letters 8.5 (2012): 846848.
Vitek, Natasha S., et al. "Exceptional threedimensional preservation and coloration of an originally iridescent fossil feather from the Middle Eocene Messel Oil Shale." Paläontologische Zeitschrift 87.4 (2013): 493503.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/720
Koenigswald, Wighart V., Andreas Braun, and Thekla Pfeiffer. "Cyanobacteria and seasonal death: a new taphonomic model for the Eocene Messel lake." Paläontologische Zeitschrift 78.2 (2004): 417424.
Pirrung, Michael, G. Buchel, and Wolfgang Jacoby. "The Tertiary volcanic basins of Eckfeld, Enspel and Messel (Germany)." ZEITSCHRIFTDEUTSCHEN GEOLOGISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT 152.1 (2001): 2760.
Franzen, Jens L., et al. "Complete primate skeleton from the middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: morphology and paleobiology." PLoS one 4.5 (2009): e5723.