Neoflabellina reticulata (Reuss 1851) – The Fossil of the Year 2022

The Paläontologische Gesellschaft (Palaeontological Association) has been awarding the title Fossil of the Year since 2008. Every year an important fossil is chosen to promote palaeontology in the public. This year, after presenting several vertebrate, invertebrate and plant fossils, a microfossil was selected for the first time. Arguments for the selection of the foraminifer Neoflabellina reticulata are:

-       Neoflabellina reticulata is a beautiful fossil.

-       Neoflabellina reticulata is an index fossil of the Maastrichtian, thus underlines the utility of microfossils in biostratigraphy. The Maastrichtian is the last stage of the Cretaceous and ends with the best known mass extinction event.

-       Neoflabellina reticulata lived in marine shelf environments below the storm wave base, i.e., it can be used as palaeoecological indicator.

-       Neoflabellina reticulata can be found in practically all chalk environments of the Maastrichtian and is documented from such well known sites as the chalk cliffs of Rügen island.

-       The first description of Neoflabellina reticulata was published by August Emil Reuss in 1851, in the period of the establishment of micropalaeontology as a science.

-       The locus typicus of Neoflabellina reticulata are the chalk marls of Lemberg, todays Lviv in Ukraine. This underlines the connectivity of science.

The Fossil of the Year was presented in a public lecture in the Pommersches Landesmuseum in Greifswald 22 May 2022. Here, we provide more information on our poster.