Solnhofen

An Englishman in Germany: Solnhofen

(aproximate length, 2 pages)

About fifty miles south from Nuremberg is the small town of Solnhofen, which has a population of a couple of thousand. It also boasts a railway station, so there's no excuse for not being able to get there. It's set in the middle of the scenic Altmuehltal Nature Park. This is a hilly area and quarrying country; beloved by geologists and paleontologists the world over. There's limestone in them there hills, and sheep grazing on the slopes, chewing their duty in the service of biodiversity. Sheep take much delight in cropping the grass, which gives the other plants a better chance to grow. Whilst they eat those too, the park authority is satisfied with the contribution these ungulates make.

The Altmuehl Valley offers many pleasures of the outdoor sort. The small towns and villages also have more than their fair share of sights worth seeing. You can hire a boat in Solnhofen from a company called Lemmings. That's surely a tempting prospect. However, it doesn't explain the disproportionate fame of this village amongst the geological and paleontological communities. It's like a magnet to them.

The reason can be found in the gorgeous limestone. Solnhofen stone is an excellent building material with a beautiful pale colour. It's been in constant use since the Romans came, saw and stuck around for a few centuries. It's both hard and finely grained and these properties have their uses, one of which is printing.

It's perhaps odd to think of rock being employed in printing, but that's precisely what the word lithographic is talking about. Limestone plates have got a relatively long working life and can print many copies. However, you need finely grained stone for this, and Solnhofen has heaps of the ideal stuff. It's where lithographic printing was invented at the end of the eighteenth century.

The nature of this stone, and the conditions in which it formed, also mean it's reasonably rich in fossils. These aren't perhaps found in such quantities as at some other places I could mention, (eg. much of the Dorset coast), but in terms of preservation, they're amongst the finest in the world. Towards the end of the Upper Jurassic, this area was a series of tropical lagoons, which were reasonably deep and oxygen poor. The paucity of oxygen meant a lack of seabed scavengers. If anything fell or was washed in, the remains tended to be covered by sediment, rather than being eaten. And it's amazing what can turn up.

As you'd expect from lagoons, sea creatures predominate. Jellyfish are composed virtually of water, (I think it's 98%), so you can't reasonably ask them to fossilize. However, that's what happened at Solnhofen. There's one in the Buergermeister Mueller Museum by the station. And the variety of fish is astounding. In some cases, larger fish were busy swallowing smaller ones when, perhaps due to an inconsiderate storm or some such, they were suddenly buried together. 145 million years have since elapsed, and the bigger fish still haven't finished dinner.

But what really grabs the attention of most paleontologists are the rarer remains of land animals. The nearby Museum Berger hosts a collection of exquisite, fossil dragonflies and a pond outside. If it's the right time of year, this allows you to watch the living representatives chatting each other up, and then to examine their long gone predecessors. David Attenborough couldn't hope to compete with that.

Solnhofen is a great place for pterosaur spotting. That's those flying reptiles. These aren't frequently found, but the quarries work week in and week out, year after year. Dozens and perhaps even hundreds of excellent specimens have been recovered. Whilst these may be portrayed as aircraft-sized monsters in the movies, that's not exactly typical. Solnhofen pterosaurs are sparrow to seagull-sized.

The most famous Jurassic resident is known to its fans as Archie. Excepting for some teeth from Portugal, Archaeopteryx ('ancient wing') has only ever been found in Solnhofen limestone. In some ways it's a bird, (the wings and feathers), whilst in others it's a pigeon-sized dinosaur, (the teeth and long, bony tail). Seven specimens have been recovered over the past 140 years or so. These fossils have pacened many a paleontological pulse. One representative resides in the aforementioned collection by the station, whilst a second can be visited at the Jura Museum in Eichstaett.

On leaving the Buergermeister Mueller Museum, go to the high street and turn left. You'll come to a restaurant which serves the two local specialities; roast lamb and big portions. The walls are decorated with further fossils.

Driving from Solnhofen to Eichstaett might not be for the faint-hearted. If you take the warning signs too seriously, they could cause a stroke. You're advised of the dangers of skidding in wet or icy conditions. Should that be avoided, you're informed of the peril of Tollwut, (rabies). I've been living here for over a decade, and no cases have been reported. Should this leave you undisturbed, further signs attest to the catastrophic possibilities of falling rocks. This left me wondering whether I might have witnessed attempted murder. On the slope opposite one of these, somebody has recklessly erected a bench.

Photos taken by Karin Dykes at the Buergermeister-Müller-Museum, Solnhofen, (16.11.03).

Archie von Solnhofen and Friends
For those looking for more on Solnhofen fossils, the link takes you to my translation of: Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1909, Heft 12, Seiten 372-377.
Streifzüge durch die Fauna der Solnhofener Plattenkalk von Karl Waale, Neu-Ruppin
Tours through the fauna of the Solnhofen Plattenkalk by Karl Waale, Neu-Ruppin.

Ktdykes@arcor.de

"Have you got any more articles on-line?"
Yes, have a look here.

Summaries of other Mesozoic localities, (especially ones with relevance to mammals and their relatives), are available at Mesozoic Mammals etc, Location Summaries.