Amber Collection

The Fossil Insects collection focuses on insects from the Brazilian Santana Formation (chalk), which was acquired by the former department head Dr. G. Plodowski, as well as insects from the well-known Solnhofen limestone in Bavaria (Jura, Malm), which depends from the museum’s old holdings. Another focus is on Coleoptera holotypes from the Niedersachsen Jura, which were described by Bode in 1953. Well-known localities such as the Randecker Maar in southern Germany, Rott am Siebengebirge, Sieblos / Rhön, the brown coal from Salzhausen, Aix-en-Provence, France, Rio Blanco, USA or Liaoning, China are also represented in the collection. The collection includes both, published and unpublished but mostly undetermined material and also contains a number of fossil insect-structures. A large number of fossil insects are also included in the amber collection.

The fossil arachnids collection is a small collection consisting of arachnids from the Brazilian Santana Formation (chalk), which was acquired in 1996 and 2004 by the former Head of Department Dr. G. Plodowski, as well as some Miocene spiders from the Randecker Maar in southern Germany and Rott am Siebengebirge. Only a few specimens have been published so far, most of the pieces are determined (see SESAM ). An extensive selection of fossil spiders can be found in the amber collection.

With about 120,000 specimens of about 3,000 species, the trilobite collection is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The true significance of the trilobite collection can be measured by its proportion of published specimens. About 6,000 trilobites are deposited for about 300 publications. A type catalog of over 1000 types  (Typen-Katalog) can be retrieved.

This collection is much smaller than the trilobite collection (about 1820 specimens) but still has a great scientific significance, as it receives samples of famous deposits: Burgess (Canada), Chengjinag (China) and Alken, Solnhofen in Germany. There are hardly known rarities (e.B. Tariccoiaarrusensis from Sardinia). These rare fossils make it possible to study important events in the history of arthropods, such as the Cambrian explosions or colonization of the mainland. They offer the rare opportunity to study different types of soft tissue preservation. An electronic catalogue of this collection has recently been created, but some changes still need to be made before it can be included in the online sesam database, in the meantime a provisional version of the catalogue can be downloaded here (Excel file).