Göppingen district office
An Ambassador from the Jurassic Sea
At the Geopark information center in the lobby of the Göppingen District Office, visitors can marvel at the 180-million-year-old fossil of an ichthyosaur. These reptiles are particularly significant for the Göppingen district: the so-called “reptile graveyard” in Eislingen attracted international attention. The specimen on display here was recovered from the Posidonia Shale and is perfectly preserved.
Its streamlined body resembles that of modern sharks or dolphins and shows that they were fast, powerful swimmers and hunters. Similar to whales, they had lungs and had to come to the surface to breathe. For hunting in the dark depths of the sea, ichthyosaurs had exceptionally large eyes, which were protected by a bony ring to prevent deformation from water pressure.
The region around Göppingen is known not only for its numerous and historically significant fossil finds, but also for its wide variety of geological features (e.g., the Aichelberg volcanic vent and the tufa terrace near Drackenstein).
Address
Landratsamt Göppingen
Lorcher Straße 6
73033 Göppingen
(Göppingen district)