Krister T. Smith

The Messel Pit is an abandoned mine in Germany that has yielded a remarkable wealth of fossils of animals that lived around a crater lake in the Eocene, about 48 million years ago. The most famous Messel find is probably Darwinius masillae, also known as 'Ida', a fossil of an early primate that made quite a splash in the media back in 2009. Otherwise the site is perhaps most significant for important finds of early bats and horses.

The book is a taxonomically organized overview of Messel fossils, with the emphasis on birds and mammals. Somewhat unusually for a popular work, the emphasis tends to be on the fossils themselves, with reconstructions of what the creatures would have looked like in life being given only for a minority of presented species. Instead, large colour photographs of the prepared fossils are provided, sometimes with arrows or inserts to point out significant features. One of the things that makes the Messel fossils exceptional is the common preservation of soft tissues such as leaves, feathers, and even the placentas of gravid early horses.

Very nice, all in all, and something I'll probably find myself dipping back into from time to time.… (altro)