The place:
The Solnhofen limestone is a 20 to 30 metre thick deposit in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is a very fine-grain rock which is dense and hard and contains exceptionally well-preserved fossils of a variety of animals.

The finds:
The Solnhofen deposits contain fossils of the oldest known bird Archaeopteryx lithgraphica. Other fossils include Anurognathus and other pterosaurs, a small dinosaur called Compsognathus, 150 species of fish, numerous species of insect, horseshoe crabs, ammonites, belemnites, and squids.

The environment:
In the Late Jurassic period the Solnhofen limestone was deposited in a coastal environment with a warm tropical climate. Offshore reefs took the force of the sea creating calm conditions in the shallow and often stagnant lagoons behind them. This allowed very fine chalky mud to be deposited, incorporating the bodies of animals and plants within it. The bodies did not decompose in the stagnant pools because they lacked oxygen, allowing excellent fossils to develop.

The people:
Since Roman times the Solnhofen quarries have been worked for their stone. In 1820 pterosaur fossils were described incorrectly as a bat by S.T. Stomering and this was the start of the investigation by palaeontologists. In 1855 an unusual skeleton was discovered it the quarry and it was later named Archaeopteryx.