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The so-called Lange Encrinite, designated as one of two syntypes of Encrinus liliiformis Lamarck, 1801, was regarded as missing or forgotten since the late 1760s. Only recently the specimen was identified as one of Lamarck's syntypes in the collections of the Bergakademie Freiberg (Saxony). The intricate history of finding, ownership, and research of this iconic crinoid leads to the ideas and thoughts in the time of Enlightenment in Central Germany. According to contemporary witnesses the crinoid was found near Schraplau or Farnstädt respectively (Querfurt Depression, Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany) about 1740 and was obtained by the Halle professor J. J. Lange. In 1755 it was published by G. W. Knorr in Nuremberg in a large-size copper engraving. As early as in the 1770s the Jena professor and expert in fossils J. E. I. Walch was unable to localise the crinoid despite all his enquiries. Lange had already sold the specimen to the Saxony Oberberghauptmann (chief mining director) Baron von Gartenberg. Afterwards, the Muschelkalk slab probably came from his possession into the local collections shortly before the foundation of the Bergakademie Freiberg (Saxony) in 1765. Several individuals of the brachiopod Tetractinella trigonella on the bedding plane allow to unequivocally assign the finding horizon to the Tetractinella Bed close to the base of the Trochitenkalk Formation. The syntype first mentioned by Lamarck from the Trochitenkalk of the Asse Hill (Lower Saxony) was already described and figured as Fig. 1 on Plate 1 by M. R. Rosinus (1719). This specimen was probably obtained with the collection of von Schlotheim in 1833 by the Berlin Natural History Museum but could not yet be located. However, the crown on his Plate 1, Fig. 2, from the same locality that also belonged to Rosinus's collection is still preserved in the Berlin collection (Quenstedt-Katalog E. 4.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With 1429 animal species, the Triassic Cassian Formation in the Dolomites, Southern Alps (Italy), yields the highest species richness reported from any spatially constrained pre‐Quaternary formation known to science. The high preserved diversity is partly attributable to a high primary diversity governed by the tropical setting, increasing alpha diversity, and the breadth of habitats spurring beta diversity. More important is the excellent preservation of fossils and the ease with which they can be extracted from the poorly lithified sediments. We propose the term 'liberation Lagerstätten' to capture this preservational window. In contrast to conservation Lagerstätten, liberation Lagerstätten like the Cassian Formation originate from normal marine conditions but low‐grade diagenesis. Molluscs contribute substantially to species richness, comprising 67% of all invertebrate species in the Cassian Formation. The gastropod dominance (39% of all species) is nearly as great as in Recent tropical settings, contradicting the concept of a substantial Cenozoic rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black shales of the lower member of the Carnian Xiaowa Formation (previously known as the Wayao Member of the Falang Formation or as the Wayao Formation) in the Guanling area, Guizhou Province, south-west China, are yielding a rich marine reptile fauna and exceptional remains of pelagic crinoids. The black shales represent deposition on the drowned southern margin of the Yangtze Platform during a Maximum Flooding Interval. The relatively reduced sedimentation rates led to the formation of the Lagerstätte through the accumulation of fossils in the anoxic bottom sediments over a prolonged period of time. Invertebrate fossils represent almost exclusively pelagic forms, such as a diverse ammonite fauna and halobiid bivalves. The spectacular finds of colonies of large (stem lengths > 11 m) crinoids of the genus Traumatocrinus attached to driftwood prove that this crinoid was the first to evolve a pseudoplanktonic life style. The other crinoid is the planktonic roveacrinid Osteocrinus. The marine reptile fauna, represented by probably hundreds of skeletons, is numerically dominated by three species of ichthyosaurs and four species of thalattosaurs. The thalattosaurs fill a palaeobiogeographic gap between the Alpine thalattosaur faunas and those from western North America. Two species of placodonts are rare finds. As for the thalattosaurs, the placodont occurrences greatly expand the geographic range of the group because placodonts have been known previously only from the Mediterranean region, the Alps and the Muschelkalk Basin. The unique abundance of thalattosaurs contrasts with a scarcity of fishes. Although we suggest that the fauna is authochthonous and inhabited surface waters, it must have represented an unusual ecosystem. However, the possibility remains that both the marine reptiles and the Traumatocrinus colonies were concentrated in the region by currents and do not reflect the biocoenosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exceptionally preserved specimens of the genera Myophoria, Neoschizodus and Trigonodus (Bivalvia, Palaeoheterodonta, Trigonioida) from carbonate sediments of the Muschelkalk (Anisian, Ladinian) contain phosphatized soft-tissues. This is the oldest record of soft-tissue preservation in bivalves and the first from the German Muschelkalk. The phosphatized remains are here interpreted as relics of the originally chitinous gill supports, the gill axis, the labial palps (?), the adductor muscles, the pedal retractor muscles, the mantle margin including the radial mantle musculature, and the ‘siphons’. According to microprobe analysis, the mineral replacing the soft-tissue is mainly apatite and, more rarely, francolite. Additionally, quartz filled voids within the gill supports, and in one sample it occurs in minute crystals in the phosphatized remains of the adductor muscle of Neoschizodus. Myophoria, Neoschizodus and Trigonodus were soft-bottom dwellers and five of the specimens were discovered in life position. This is indicated by geopetal structures in three specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]