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A perfectly preserved turtle fossil from Lower Bavaria yields important clues about both the species and the habitat that existed in southern Germany 150 million years ago.

For paleontologists, Hammerschmiede in the Allgäu region, the site where the great ape Danuvius was discovered, is a treasure trove unlike any other: more than 140 fossil vertebrate species have been found here.

Plesiosaurs, which lived about 210 million years ago, adapted to life underwater in a unique way: their front and hind legs evolved in the course of evolution to form four uniform, wing-like flippers.

Based on the many fossil finds of false gharial relatives from North Africa and Europe, palaeontologists believe that this crocodile species originated more than 50 million years ago in the western Tethys, a precursor to today's Mediterranean Sea.