Curriculum vitae of the messel pit, Stephan Schaal; Europe in the eocene - messel in time and space, Jens Lorenz Franzen; the genesis of the messel oil shale, Stephan Schaal; the vegetation - fossil plants as witnesses of a warm climate, Friedemann Schaarschmidt; giant ants and other rarities - the insect fauna, Herbert Lutz; ancient knights-in-armour and modern cannibals, Norbert Micklich; amphibia at lake messel - salamanders, toads and frogs, Michael Wuttke; freshwater turtles, Thomas Keller and Stpehan Schaal; crocodiles - large ancient reptiles, Thomas Keller and Stephan Schaal; lizards - reptiles en route to success, Thomas Keller and Stephan Schaal; messel birds - a lang-based assemblage, Dieter Stefan Peters; the marsupials - inconspicuous opossums, Wighart von Koenigswald and Gerhard Storch; primitive insectivores, extraordinary hedgehogs and long fingers, Wighart von Koenigswald, et al; bats - already highly specialized insect predators, Jorg Habersetzer, et al; our closest relatives - the primates, Jens Lorenz Franzen and Wighart von Koenigswald; pangolins - almost unchanged for 50 million years, Gerhard Storch and Gotthard Richter; the ant-eater eurotamandua - a South American in Europe, Gerhard Storch and Gotthard Richter; rodents - at the start of a great career, Wighart von Koenigswald, et al; carnivores - agile climbers and prey catchers, Rainer Springhorn; the arboreal kopidodon, a relative of primitive hoofed animals, Wighart von Koenigswald; the messel horse show and other odd-toed ungulates, Jens Lorenz Franzen; primitive even-toed ungulates - loners in the undergrowth, Jens Lorenz Franzen and Gotthard Richter; death and burial of the vertebrates, Michael Wuttke; conservation - dissolution - transformation, on the behaviour of biogrnic materials during fossilization, Micahel Wauttke; from excavation to exhibition piece, Michael Ackermann, et al; fossilized gut contents - analysis and interpretation, Gotthard Richter; the messel fauna and flora - a biogeographical puzzle, Gerhard Storch and Friedemann Schaarschmidt.
