The fabulous fossils of Messel - a colourful world of birds and beetles

Fossil oil shales open a window into the early diversity of mammals and the radiation of birds with spectacular fossils

The fossil record is crap. The chances of an organism becoming fossilised are small, and the chance of us finding said fossil are even smaller. More often than not, the fossils that we do find consist of mere fragments of an organism, rather than complete and intact animals or plants. These tattered specimens provide us with a tiny, cracked peephole through which we attempt to view the past. It is like reconstructing the world based on your three-year old niece's drawings.