The collection of fossils from Solnhofen and Eichstätt originates from very fine-grained limestone, so-called lithographic limestone, world famous for its precise preservation of fossils. The material is about 148 million years old (Upper Jura). Solnhofen is about 100 kilometres north of Munich.
Because of the rocks’ extreme fine-grain character, great details of the fossils have been preserved. This sediment for example is also known from Archeopteryx, the ‘primitive bird’, of which Museon’s collection includes two different casts. The collection consists mainly of anthropodals, cephalopoda, fish, insects and the wing of a flying reptile.