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The city of Chemnitz in southeastern Germany dates back to the Middle Ages. It is very close to the border with the modern Czech Republic and became part of the former East Germany after World War II, where it was called Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953 to 1990.
Chemnitz turns out to be located over the remains of an ancient early Permian forest that was buried by a pyroclastic volcanic eruption around 291 million years ago, creating a kind of Permian Pompeii. Petrified wood has been dug up for centuries. Many of these finds have been on display at the Chemnitz Natural History Museum.
It was only in 2008, however, that the museum and a team of researchers undertook a new, detailed and systematic scientific excavation (intended to end in 2010 but extended into early 2011), restricted to a single site measuring only 18 by 24 meters. The chosen site was in an open space in the Hilbersdorf district of the city.
In addition of the anticipated petrified trees and plants, this limited dig turned up an unexpected and amazing array of animal fossils (vertebrates and invertebrates). The finds suggest that, were the modern city not on top of the ancient forest and were resources available, many more fossil animals likely could be brought to light, frozen in time by a nearly instantaneous disaster back in the Early Permian.
Press releases and news media items in German highlighted the discovery of an Ursaurier [ancient saurian] in particular. However, until the new Ascendonanus paper, the majority of the published scientific articles about the Chemnitz finds have been devoted to fossil plants and to fossil arthropods (scorpions, arachnids), with only passing mention of the vertebrate finds (including fossils of two aistopods, of an eryopid temnospondyl, in addition to the five "reptiles" (the synapsid Ascendonanus)).
The most sensational find reported in the media has been a small "reptile" specimen nicknamed Helge, preserved on a slab and counterslab as a nearly entire animal with skin outline and scales. As described below, the Helge specimen was actually discovered in June 2011 after the official excavation had ended and the Hilbersdorf dig site was being covered back over again and restored.
In 2014, the Chemnitz Museum of Natural History began a new dig in the Sonnenberg district of the city. This more ambitious, long-term dig is still ongoing (except for the winter months).
http://naturkundemuseum-chemnitz.de/de/fenster-in-die-erdgeschichte-grabung-sonnenberg.html
https://www.grabungsteam-chemnitz.de/
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The Helge Specimen
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pdf of June 11, 2011 press release in German:
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[Here is my very rough (and rather literal) English translation of the 2011 press release in German. As pointed out by David, one tricky issue is accurately translating the German term Saurier (same spelling in nominative singular and plural), which is roughly equivalent to the now outdated English term "saurian" and is applied to both fossil reptiles (including synapsids) and fossil amphibians in German.]
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On the 7th and 8th of June 2011, Georg Sommer and Dr. Ralf Werneburg [from the Schleusingen Museum] were in Chemnitz.
They were assisting the Museum of Natural History in its handling of the reptile and amphibian finds, as collaborative partners within the framework of the Volkswagen Foundation-funded research project.
During a visit to the dig site, which was in the process of being restored, Georg Sommer noticed an impression on a block of tuff that on closer inspection turned out to be a reptilian-like tail. It was quickly decided to extract the whole rough block of tuff.
The two specialists drove back to Schleusingen with the stone block on the bed of the truck. Once there, after brief preparation, the find was revealed as a nearly complete fossilized early reptile.
The reptile was overwhelmed [and buried] by a volcanic eruption, along with the plants that make up the modern petrified forest, and thus preserved for posterity. This reptile is so far the most complete and best preserved specimen of the little reptilian species from Chemnitz.
Readily recognizable are the scaly integument, bones, the skull with eye sockets, and the outline of the skin. Particularly striking is the very long tail. This find is reminiscent of the green iguana. Not only the construction of the body, but also the tree-climbing lifestyle and the probable dietary range are comparable.
The object is currently still in Schleusingen, and will be prepared and scientifically studied there. Later on it will be accorded a spot for certain in the permanent collection displays [at the Chemnitz Museum of Natural History].
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The fifth Chemnitz reptile bears the name Helge.
The discoverer Georg Sommer as well as the Chemnitz excavation director Ralph Kretzschmar are Helge Schneider [German comedian and musician] fans. In this respect, quick agreement on the name choice was reached.
Dr. Ralf Werneburg noted that Chemnitz evidently is developing into a "fossil saurian" site. The excavation of an area 18x24 meters has produced in total five reptiles and three amphibans [two aistopods, one eryopid] to date.
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Photo of Georg Sommer and Dr. Ralf Werneburg from July 2011, showing the small size of the newly revealed Helge specimen.
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A photo of the skin-outline fossil on one slab was included in a 2012 technical paper in Palaios about the Chemnitz site in English, simply labeled "Complete reptile skeleton from the tuff of Facies 5.1 (TA1045)":
Ronny RÃÃler, Thorid Zierold, Zhuo Feng, Ralph Kretzschmar, Mathias Merbitz, Volker Annacker, and JÃrg W. Schneider (2012)
A snapshot of an Early Permian ecosystem preserved by explosive volcanism: new results from the Chemnitz petrified forest, Germany.
PALAIOS, 27(11):814-834
doi: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.2110/palo.2011.p11-112r
Free pdf:
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Earlier "Reptile" Specimens from the Chemnitz Dig
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The specimen called Helge was the fifth fossil of a small reptilian animal found at the Chemnitz dig site. The other earlier specimens were nicknamed Schnappi (after a popular children's song "Schnappi das kleine Krokodil" [Snappy the Little Crocodile](found September 2009), Don (found October 2009), Lotte, and Slusia (see below).
Each of these "reptilian" fossils was reportedly found near to the preserved upright trunk of a tree (Rossler 2012), suggesting that the little creatures may have been blown off the tree by the force of the scalding pyroclastic blast and then quickly buried in ash, which turned to hardened tuff. An alternative scenario is that the creatures fell off the trees when they were overcome by toxic gas before the pyroclastic ash buried them. Along with the elongated digit on the back foot and the long tail, the proximity to a tree would support the idea that the animals were arboreal, similar to modern lizards such as the green iguana.
However, there was some confusion early on about the exact nature of the Chemnitz "Ursaurier."
Early depiction from 2010 of Schnappi as a long-legged running "archosauromorph-like" Âbiped (!) from the Early Permian...
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http://www.naturkunde-chemnitz.de/bilder/b_ausstellungen/Info%20Aktion%20Schnappi.pdf
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The most recent depiction of Ascendonanus (still nicknamed "Schnappi") as a short-legged tree-climber (click on illustration to expand image)
http://www.naturkundemuseum-chemnitz.de/de/news/280.html
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The "Slusia" and "Don" Specimens
Prior to the discovery of Helge in June 2011, the most complete "reptilian" specimens were the second and the fourth ones discovered, nicknamed, respectively, Don (after the finder's pet Rotweiler) and Slusia (after Slusia, the name of a nixie (mermaid-like female water spirit) who is an emblem of Schleusingen based on a old legend about the city's founding). Although the two specimens are less complete overall than Helge, they preserve details of the bones and the skull in better detail. The Slusia specimen was originally sorted, unrecognized, into the Problematika category of boxes and was only revealed as a "reptile" after preparation of the block of tuff began (thus, in some sense, the fossil animal was "discovered" in Schleusingen, where the preparation work on some of the Chemnitz fossils was being conducted). Of major note was that Slusia preserved scales from its tail and also was found with an intact skull.
press prelease for Slusia (in German)
SIDE NOTE: Legend of Slusia and the Etymology of Schleusingen
Photo of a bronze statue of the nixie Slusia with her bewitched daughter, turned into a deer by an evil sorcerer.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Slusia_mit_Reh.jpg
Legend of Slusia (in German)
http://www.schleusingen.de/der-ursprung-schleusingens/
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The legendary founder of Schleusingen, a wealthy count, had chased a white female deer into the forest on a hunt, became separated from his retinue, and was overtaken by nightfall. When he sought shelter in a grotto at the base of a mountain, he encountered a female water fairy (nixie) singing in a glowing spring. A band around her forehead bore the mysterious letters S.L.U.S. (Sie Liebe Und Siege. [She loves and triumphs], referring to her daughter). She revealed that the white deer Âwas her daughter, transformed by a sorcerer's evil spell. Slusia asked the count to help kill the sorcerer and release her daughter from his magic. She would sing the sorcerer to sleep and the count would then overpower him. After the count had killed the sorcerer, he poured magical spring water over the deer, who turned back into a beautiful maiden and whom he shortly after married. He then built a town (Schleusingen) on a site near the spring where her mother Susie lived.
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Â[In mechanically(?) translated (pretty garbled) English...
https://www.schleusingen.de/en/der-ursprung-schleusingens/]
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The colorful "Slusia" legend was clearly invented to give a more romantic explanation for the town name Schleusingen (which was called Slusungen in Medieval sources), and for the local river name Schleuse. The actual source of the names is much less glamorous-- the old Medieval Latin word "slusa" for a fishweir [Fischwehr], since fishing the river was long an important local industry (Volkmar 2011: 22). The word "slusa" came from older Latin "exclusa" and is also the source of "sluice" in English.
See:
Manfred Volkmar (2011)
Sagenhaftes entlang der Werra zwischen Eisfeld und Treffurt.
Sutton Verlag GmbH. 94 pages
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The Don and Slusia specimens were featured in a video in German released to YouTube in March 2011 (before the discovery of the Helge specimen). The video includes details of the fossil specimens then not yet published.
3# - Auf Schatzsuche in Chemnitz - Slusia
[On a Treasure Hunt in Chemnitz - Slusia]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eICxikkPMD8
Video
Summary of the content, with my additions in brackets...
[Collection technician Ralph Kretzschmar from the Museum fÃr Naturkunde Chemnitz visits the preparation lab at the Naturhistorischen Museum Schloss Bertholdsburg in Schleusingen.]
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Ralph examining a stuffed green iguana with zoologist Holger Rathaj at the Chemnitz Museum, who identifies it as a climbing lizard, noting in particular the elongated hind toe with a claw, a feature it is hoped may be present in the reptile fossils.
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Preparator Georg Sommer in Schleusingen working on part of the second specimen found (referred to as "Don"), to uncover the foot bones, hoping for a claw on the long toe, and the possibility that Don could be a complete specimen.
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A prepared hind foot specimen showing the elongated back toe (similar to an iguana foot).Â
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Ralph arrives at Naturhistorisches Museum Schloss Bertholdsburg in Schleusingen
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Ralph with Georg Sommer, discussing the latest results of preparation work on the Chemnitz fossils: the little Slusia specimen in different blocks of stone, first recognized from a scaly tail, then much of the rest of the Slusia specimen in a larger block, and finally the skull in an additional block, which required painstaking efforts to prepare but paid off with very clear details of the skull discernible for the first time according to Ralf Werneburg.
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The Don specimen, noted as larger than the "kleine Slusia" specimen (which is possibly a female).
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Discussion of the name Slusia. The legendary Slusia appears on an old coat of arms for the city. The nickname Slusia was chosen to allude both to the scaly tail on the fossil (similar to the original Slusia's fish tail) and to the fact that the discovery of the fossil happened in Schleusingen when the block of stone was prepared. [The other three "reptile" fossils were recognized as such at the time they were recovered in the quarry at Chemnitz].
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The discovery of Don at the Chemnitz dig site with a forelimb (arm) exposed [in 2009].
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Georg pointing out details of the Don specimen, assembled from cracked blocks, and which was CT scanned. 3-D image of the skull.
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Ralph moves on to another part of the building. Dr. Ralf Werneburg showing a display with models of early Permian "reptiles." He explains that the Seymouria depicted is heftier and has different proportions from the Chemnitz reptile, which was a slender, long-tailed climber that lived in trees, where it sought its food.
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