Jurassic Solnhofen Lobster and Brittle Star
Magila sp. and Geocoma carinata
Solnhofen Limestone (Upper Jurassic Tithonian)
Eichstatt, Germany
This specimen is an unusual form of lobster from Solnhofen. Magila is a small crustacean with powerful lobster-like pincers. The next pair of walking legs bear only tiny pincer-like appendages. It has a cylindrical cephalothorax and appears rounded when seen in profile. The posterior body is usually bent. Also seen on this slab is brittle star Geocoma carinata. The slab is repaired.
The Solnhofen Plattenkalk, or Solnhofen limestone, is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies. The most familiar fossils of the Solnhofen Plattenkalk include the early feathered theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx preserved in such detail that they are among the most famous and most beautiful fossils in the world. The Solnhofen beds lie in the German state of Bavaria (Bayern), halfway between Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and Munich (München) and were originally quarried as a source of Lithographic limestone.
$160