Brittle Star Mortality Plate - Solnhofen Limestone

This is a mass mortality plate of Jurassic aged brittle stars (Ophiopetra lithographica) from the famed Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. There are about five brittle stars preserved on a 3x2.5" piece of matrix, the largest one having an arm span of about 1 1/2 inches. The preservation is very nice on this piece and the fossils do no have any enhancement.

The Solnhofen limestones is a famous Lagerstätte in Germany that offer amazing preservation of Upper Jurassic fossils. It is where one of the most famous fossils of all time, Archaeopteryx was found. The fine grained limestone makes excellent building materials which has led to heavy quarrying over the past two centuries, which has resulted in some amazing fossils being unearthed.

This area represented an archipelago at the edge of a sea. Due to high salt content, the lowest levels in the water column could not support much life and was devoid of oxygen. This lack of scavengers on the bottom of the sea led to amazing preservation of the fauna found there.