Microfossil laboratory (laboratory for wet sieving / wet laboratory)

Work flow in the wet laboratory Source: BGR

Calcareous microfossils (foraminifers, ostracods, bolboforma, mesofauna) are prepared by wet sieving/washing with water and hydrogen peroxide. The first samples at the BGR were treated in 1944; until 01.02.2020, 112,677 samples have been processed.Microscopic studies are routinely performed using a reflected light binocular. After the preparation step microfossils are picked out of specific size fractions into microfossil cells. In a next step the microfossils are taxonomically determined and fossil assemblages are analysed.

Since fine structures can be detected particularly well with the scanning electron microscope (SEM), this examination is frequently used.

At the BGR and LBEG stratigraphic studies using calcareous microfossils are covering the Mesozoic (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous) and the Cenozoic (Palaeogene, Neogene and Quaternary).