The Bavarian lithographic limestone that gave the world Archaeopteryx, twelve specimens of it, the fossil that tied birds to dinosaurs. The stone is so fine it was quarried for printing plates, and it preserves feathers, jellyfish and the death-march trackway of a horseshoe crab with the crab still at the end of it. Several quarries around Solnhofen and Eichstatt let visitors split rock for a fee and keep ordinary finds.
Archaeopteryx, pterosaurs, horseshoe crabs · Late Jurassic, ~150 mya
A commercial or managed site. You pay for access, and what you turn up is yours. Book ahead where the site asks for it.
Germany
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