Piesberg quarry is famous for its Upper Carboniferous plant and arthropod fossils, including several holotypes of flying insects. The high degree of maturity of the Piesberg strata, such as the presence of anthracitic coal, quartzite, and large quartz crystals, led to controversies over a possible underlying thermal anomaly. The Piesberg is of further importance for correlation between the deep underground of northwestern Germany and the Ruhr basin coal field, as well as the Pennsylvanian coal areas in North America, and for investigations of Upper Carboniferous tight gas fields. The importance of the Piesberg for international geosciences has been enabled through its very rich mining history beginning in the Middle Ages and its long scientific history beginning at the end of the 18th century. Today, the Piesberg is not only one of the largest active quarry sites in Europe, but also a local recreation and hiking area. While the Museum am Scholerberg in Osnabruck protects its paleontological heritage through ongoing excavations and houses the world’s largest fossil and mineral collection from Piesberg, the UNESCO Global Geopark TERRA.vita and the city of Osnabruck conserve its geological heritage and promote environmental education through the Piesberg Cultural and Environmental Park. This paper highlights the international importance of the Piesberg by compiling its fossil record and paleoenvironmental interpretations. We also present preliminary data on new floral and faunal elements found in a recently discovered lake deposit. Further, the very rich mining history is briefly outlined and geoconservation and geotouristic measures are described.

The low level of the Jurassic sea in the area of Bad Essen-Barkhausen (Wiehen Mountains, NW Germany) was a precondition for the migration of a herd of sauropods and theropods through this coastal area about 153 million years ago. The dinosaurs left at least 11 trackways on a single fine-grained siltstone layer and several more footprints on another, younger layer. The dinosaur track layers experienced diagenesis and subsequent uplifting during the Late Cretaceous, so that they are presently exposed in sub-vertical position on a quarry rock wall. Since the discovery of the tracks in 1921, their preservation has been challenging. It has not been possible to recover the tracks because of dense jointing in the host rocks, so an in-situ fossil geosite had to be established. Because in-situ geoconservation was not common practice until the 1960s, the dinosaur tracks were initially conserved only as casts. Since the 1960s, the geosite has undergone regular protection measures, including impregnation, cement slurry injections, a drainage system and construction of a glass roof. In 1976, the quarry was granted the status of an open-air museum, which currently offers regularly updated panels, life-sized dinosaur models, guided tours, events, exhibitions and an anchor point in a hiking and cycling trail network. The conservation of the dinosaur track layers and the continuous improvement of touristic and educational programs have only been possible through decades of collaboration between the UNESCO Global Geopark TERRA.vita and its partners such as Osnabruck County, the City of Bad Essen, the Natural History Museum "Museum am Scholerberg" in Osnabruck, the Experiential Pedagogical Country Hostel Barkhausen and local associations.

The palaeoecology of Spinicaudata, the dominant group of benthic invertebrates in many pre‐Cenozoic freshwater environments, remains poorly understood. In analogy with extant taxa, it has been oversimplified and often reduced to shallow, temporary environments characterized by few trophic levels, implying ecological stasis from the Devonian to the Recent. We excavated 43 horizons of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation (Anjiagou and Hengdaozi beds) to evaluate whether spinicaudatan ecology can be simplified to such an extent. Sedimentological evidence suggests general perennial conditions during the excavated lake interval. Based on 33 226 specimen counts, we identified three arthropod‐dominated macrobenthic associations and two assemblages. Response curves indicate that the spinicaudatan Eosestheria middendorfii was exceptionally tolerant to environmental gradients, followed, in decreasing order, by mayfly larvae, water boatmen and oligochaetes. Many spinicaudatan‐yielding layers represent death after reproductive senescence rather than mass‐mortality events. Spinicaudatan size varies significantly according to faunal association. A forward stepwise regression model suggests that growth responded to population density and diversity: lower densities and higher diversities triggered fast growth, and vice versa. The proposed strong density effect on carapace size has been corroborated by rearing experiments: as for E. middendorfii, natural log regression provided the best fit for the two extant species Eulimnadia texana and Eocyzicus argillaquus. Hence, E. middendorfii was a tolerant and morphologically variable species adapted to perennial waters and the frequent presence of higher trophic levels. Although there are rare records of extant taxa co‐occurring with fish, the described Early Cretaceous environment is commonly not inhabited by extant Spinicaudata.

The density of vertebrate fossils on bedding planes is generally very low in the Upper Jurassic plattenkalks forming the Solnhofen fossil Lagerstatte. There are, however, a few bedding planes where large concentrations of the small fis Leptolepides sprattiformis (BLAINVILLE, 1818) occur. The aim of this paper is to analyse and interpret these f sh concentrations from a taphonomic point of view. For this purpose, the taphonomic features of L. sprattiformis concentrations on three large slabs were semi-quantitatively analysed. The concentrations of individuals on bedding planes are explained as recording local mass mortality events caused by tropical storms that, for short intervals, disrupted the pycnocline which separated hypersaline, oxygen-poor to anoxic bottom waters from normal marine surface waters in the Plattenkalk basins. Mass mortality is supported by tetany features such as gaping jaws, hyperextended branchiostegal rays, and splayed f ns, which occur in the majority of the specimens. The generally excellent preservation of the f sh resulted from lack of postmortem f oatation, rapid burial and/or overgrowth by microbial f lms, and quick re-establishment of the pycnocline with inhospitable conditions on the basin floo. The post-mortem concave-arching of the backbones and various displacements of the vertebral column were most likely caused by varying decay resistance of soft tissues and the pressure of decay gases in the body cavities, respectively. The taphonomic analysis of f sh concentrations can provide very detailed palaeoenvironmental information and serves as an independent line of evidence for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions that complements geochemical and sedimentary data.

The Upper Kimmeridgian Wattendorf Plattenkalk, the oldest of the Solnhofen-type plattenkalks of southern Germany, has yielded a high number of exceptionally preserved fossils over the past several years. The high number of fossils and the fact that every bedding plane, along which the laminated rocks split, has been equally thoroughly searched for fossils, allow for qualitative as well as quantitative taphonomic investigations. For a quantitative analysis of the Wattendorf lagerstätte, four different taphofacies (A–D) were established by means of euclidean cluster analysis. For this, biostratinomic features of neopterygian fishes, primarily of the genus Tharsis, were recorded. Percentages of the occurrence of these features per layer were determined and clustered into groups of similar patterns. The taphonomic features utilised were bending of the spinal column, completeness, and skeletal articulation. Taphofacies A through D mark a change from a palaeoenvironment with only small extrinsic disturbing factors to a palaeoenvironment characterised by greater disturbance (e.g. bottom currents, fluctuating salinity). At the beginning of plattenkalk deposition, cyclic changes of the palaeoenvironment prevailed with periodic high disturbance, probably caused by storm-induced flows. These events initiated mixing of the supposedly chemically stratified water body. In the upper part of the plattenkalk unit, taphofacies indicative of higher disturbance dominate, suggesting a change from stable to less stable environmental conditions in the plattenkalk basin resulting in disruption of the typical plattenkalk sedimentation. Sporadic oxygenation of bottom waters is also indicated by the style of soft-tissue preservation. Besides typical phosphatisation, a specimen of Palaeohirudo? sp. shows soft-tissue preservation through iron-oxide permineralisation.

An integrated analysis based on borehole sections and surface exposures of the Middle to Upper Turonian Roding Formation in the Bodenwohrer Senke (NE Bavaria), close to the southwestern margin of the Bohemian Massif, is presented. Detailed bed-by-bed logging, facies analysis and multistratigraphic dating resulted in the recognition of its depositional environments and tectonostratigraphic significance as well as in its precise stratigraphic calibration and correlation. The Roding Formation has a thickness ranging from 75 m in the northwest to 120 m in the central and southeastern parts of the Bodenwohrer Senke. It nearly exclusively consists of siliciclastic rocks (clays, silt-and sandstones, reddish to brown lithic-arkosic pebble sandstones and gravelstones) and is subdivided into the Altenkreith, Freihols, Taxoldern and Seugast Member (from base to top). The Altenkreith and the Taxoldern members are marine units (inner to mid-shelf) while the Freihols and the Seugast members are (predominantly) non-marine units (alluvial fan and river deposits). The Roding Formation rests with a major unconformity on the Lower Turonian Winzerberg Formation and is sharply overlain by the upper Upper Turonian-Lower Coniacian deeper marine clays of the Hellkofen Formation. Also the bases of the Freihols and the Seugast members are significant unconformities. Based on these erosional and/or non-depositional unconformities (sequence boundaries, SB Tu 1-5), four depositional sequences (DS Tu 2-5) can be recognised in the Middle-Upper Turonian of the Bodenwohrer Senke, describing a nearly symmetrical trans-/regressive cycle of 2(nd)-order with a maximum flooding within DS Tu 3 (upper Middle Turonian). Sequence boundary Tu 1 is placed in the Lower-Middle Turonian boundary interval and separates the Roding Formation from the underlying Winzerberg Formation. SB Tu 2 occurs at the base of the Freihols Member and is of early Middle Turonian age while lower Upper Turonian SB Tu 3 was recorded within the Taxoldern Member. SB Tu 4 is a major mid-Late Turonian unconformity at the base of the Seugast Member and the late Late Turonian SB Tu 5 terminates the Roding Formation. Time-equivalent unconformities have also been recognised in the Regensburg-Kelheim area c. 50 km in the south (contemporaneous Kagerhoh and Grossberg formations) and sequence stratigraphy thus serves as a key tool for correlation. These major unconformities also occur in other Cretaceous basins of Europe and elsewhere and, thus, seem to be mainly controlled by eustatic sea-level changes. However, based on conspicuous changes in basin architecture and increased sediment supply as well as compositional and textural immaturity we suggest that the Middle Turonian Freihols Member signifies the onset of Late Cretaceous inversion at the southeastern margin of the Bohemian Massif.

The facies development and onlap pattern of the lower Danubian Cretaceous Group (Bavaria, southern Germany) have been evaluated based on detailed logging, subdivision, and correlation of four key sections using an integrated stratigraphic approach as well as litho-, bio-, and microfacies analyses. Contrary to statements in the literature, the transgressive onlap of the Regensburg Formation started in the Regensburg–Kelheim area already in the early Early Cenomanian Mantelliceras mantelli ammonite Zone and not in the Late Cenomanian. In the Early Cenomanian, nearshore glauconitic-bioclastic sandstones prevailed (Saal Member), followed by Middle to lower Upper Cenomanian mid-shelf siliceous carbonates intercalated with fine-sandy to silty marls (Bad Abbach Member). Starting in the mid-Late Cenomanian (Metoicoceras geslinianum ammonite Zone), a considerable deepening pulse during the Cenomanian–Turonian Boundary Event (CTBE) initiated the deposition of the deeper shelf silty marls of the Eibrunn Formation, which range into the early Early Turonian. During the CTBE transgression, also the proximal Bodenwöhrer Senke (ca. 40 km NE of Regensburg) was flooded, indicated by the onlap of the Regensburg Formation onto Variscan granites of the Bohemian Massif, overlain by a thin tongue of lowermost Turonian Eibrunn Formation. A detailed record of the positive δ13C excursion of the global Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) 2 has been retrieved from this shallow-water setting. An integrated approach of bio-, event-, carbon stable isotope and sequence stratigraphy was applied to correlate the sections and to decipher the dynamics of this overall transgressive depositional system. The Cenomanian successions show five prominent unconformities, which correlate with those being known from basins in Europe and elsewhere, indicating their eustatic origin. The rate of sea-level rise during the CTBE suggests glacio-eustasy as a driving mechanism for Late Cenomanian sea-level changes. The Regensburg and Eibrunn formations of the lower Danubian Cretaceous Group are highly diachronous lithostratigraphic units. Their regional distribution and northeast-directed onlap pattern onto the southwestern margin of the Bohemian Massif can readily be explained by the lateral movements of roughly coast-parallel (i.e., NW/SE-trending) facies belts of a graded shelf system transgressing on a northeastward-rising substrate. It took the Cenomanian coastline ca. 6 Ma to transgress from southwest of Regensburg to the topographically elevated granite cliffs southeast of Roding in the Bodenwöhrer Senke (=60 km distance).

The belemnite records of the lower Danubian Cretaceous Group (DCG, northeastern Bavaria, southern Germany) are compiled, taxonomically described and placed within the new integrated stratigraphic framework of the group. Three specimens from the lower Regensburg Formation (Saal Member) south of Regensburg can be assigned to Neohibolites cf. ultimus (d'Orbigny) and are dated as late Early Cenomanian (Mantelliceras dixoni Zone). Eight specimens represent Praeactinocamax plenus (Blainville) and occur in an event (plenus Event) in the lower Eibrunn Formation (Regensburg area) or basal Regensburg Formation (Roding area in the Bodenwohrer Senke). Biostratigraphy and carbon stable isotopes suggest that the belemnite horizon with P. plenus in the DCG has strictly the same chronostratigraphic position (mid-Late Cenomanian, middle Metoicoceras geslinianum Zone) as elsewhere in Central and NW Europe. The lithostratigraphic units of the lower Danubian Cretaceous Group (i.e., the Regensburg and Eibrunn formations), however, are characterized by a pronounced diachronism based on their time-transgressive (i.e., onlapping) deposition during the Cenomanian-Early Turonian transgression. The distribution of P. plenus around the Mid-European Island can be easily explained by migration around the positive area without the necessity of a marine strait across the Bohemian Massif.