Abstract

Konservat-Lagerstätten are defined as localities in which the fossil record is characterized by unusual preservation (e.g. soft tissues). This is the case at Fossil Hill, an Early and middle Eocene site located on Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The fossil content was first documented by Covacevich and colleagues in the 1970ies who reported abundant trace fossils allocated to birds. To date, Fossil Hill is the only fossil site in Antarctica with a wide record of vertebrate trace fossils of the Cenozoic, the majority of which are refered to bird footprints. Phororhacos or ratite footprints highlight the ichnofauna, among numerous other birds, but an anatid footprint with preservation of soft tissues was also discovered as well as bird feeding traces, fossil footprints of a micromammal with feline pedal characteristics and the only feather reported from Antarctic; the latter even conserves barbules (microstructures of difficult preservation). In addition, leaf imprints and palynomorphs as well as abundant invertebrate trace fossils (e.g. arthropod trackways) indicate continental setting. The fossil-bearing sediments are volcanodetritic and acid water from this volcanism was clearly a key factor in the dissolution of bones and shells, leading to the preservation only of traces. In that aspect, Fossil Hill differs from any other known lagerstätten.