World Class Fossil Shrimp (Aeger tipularius) - Solnhofen

This is a truly WORLD CLASS fossil shrimp (Aeger tipularius) from the 155 million year old Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. It's a monster at almost 9" in length when you include the antenna, the body would be over 4" if it was outstretched. The detail on this specimen is amazing, and unlike many of the shrimp fossils from the Solnhofen the details aren't simply painted on. As an added bonus there is a nicely preserved plant fossil probably of the genus Athrotaxis right above it. This is a phenomenal piece.

The fossils lie on a large 19x16", unbroken slab of limestone. We can trim this limestone down to custom dimensions upon request for no charge.

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