Multimedia DVD: Prehistoric times at Geistersee & Ida completed

Only available in German.

The famous fossils from Germany’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Messel Pit, provide an insight into a 47-million-year-old habitat – a lake surrounded by tropical jungle. But what could the creatures really have looked like at that time and what stories do they tell us?

Prehistoric times at Geistersee
In search of the Messel of today, the film accompanies scientists from the SENCKENBERG Research Institute in Frankfurt to various continents around the world. The main characters are bats. Their evolution is presented using the most important fossils from Messel and North America.
16:9, 45 minutes

Ida completed
The story of a primate found in Messel is told by contemporary witnesses and the two original plates. The original skeleton is reconstructed for the first time using elaborate computer tomographic animations and Darwinius masillae moves through the Messel primeval forest in a lifelike manner.
16:9, 25 minutes

Bonusmaterial:

A prehistoric horse goes 3D
The fossil preparation and the creation of a new 3D model of the small Messel prehistoric horse Eurohippus messelensis is shown in the various work steps and made to walk in a motion study.
Bonus material: 4:3, 15 minutes

Messel – the creation of a natural wonder
The 2001 research borehole (sponsored by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, among others) provides evidence: The Messeler Maarsee was formed by a series of steam explosions.
Bonus material: 4:3, 15 minutes

Script and ideas: Dr. K. Sparwasser (pp), Dr. J. Habersetzer (SGN), Dr. R. Rabenstein (SGN)
© SENCKENBERG (SGN Frankfurt) and perentie productions (pp Eppstein)

ISBN: 978-3-929907-85-8

Only available in German. The DVD “Urzeit am Geistersee & Ida completed” is available from bookshops for € 7.95 (plus postage) or from the Frankfurt Book Exchange, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, by e-mail order-ffm@senckenberg.de, Fax 069/7542-1437  or directly from our museum store.