lagerstätte

thumb|Well-preserved basal arthropod Opabinia from [[Burgess Shale Lagerstätte (Middle Cambrian) ]]

A Fossil-Lagerstätte ( from Lager 'storage, lair' and Stätte 'place'; ) is a sedimentary deposit that preserves an exceptionally high amount of palaeontological information. Konzentrat-Lagerstätten preserve a high concentration of fossils, while Konservat-Lagerstätten offer exceptional fossil preservation, sometimes including preserved soft tissues. Konservat-Lagerstätten may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. Fossil-Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present.