HÖWENEGG

HOME • HÖWENEGG PUBLICATIONS • HÖWENEGG FAUNAL LIST • RHOI PROJECTS • MAP

Höwenegg, Germany

10.3 Ma

Until June 2003, no fossil excavations had taken place at Höwenegg since 1965. Recognizing a need to further refine the chronometric age, the sedimentologic and taphonomic situations, and to recover further skeletons, research was reinitiated by Drs. Bernor, Mittmann, Munk, and Wolf in the summer of 2003. Excavating every summer since 2003, Dr. Bernor et al. have recovered a variety of vertebrate fossil remains, some even with fetuses in situs utero from a broad swath of verebrate taxa, beginning with Miotragocerus and Trionyx in the earliest field seasons, to Hippotherium and Aceratherium in the most recent field seasons (2006-2008). The ongoing work at this important Middle Miocene site is aimed at understanding the “kill mechanism” underlying the abundant fossil accumulation, as well as reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental context for fossil preservation.