I was looking very much forward to this but the Hammerschmiede clay pit turned out much more difficult than I anticipated. As one of the most important Miocene sites in Europe and 3 big pieces by Mauricio Anton already done... my own expectations were high.
Hammerschmiede is a incredibly diverse site, preserving fossils that were deposited in a small stream and a medium sized river. It's biggest claim to fame is the discovery of Danuvius, a potentially already bipedal primate. Besides this the site has fascinating faunal composition
The seasonally dry, open woodland of Hammerschmiede has one of the largest carnivoran guilds, Chalicotheriinae and Schizotheriinae overlapping, tons of durophagous snapping turtles, the youngest choristoderes, giant cranes, basal pandas and two species of beaver.
The size this time was large enough so that three people were involved in it's creation, Montana, JW and Dynamoterror.
