Ofterdinger Ammonitenpflaster

Hundreds of fossils conserved in a river bed

With a little luck, you can discover a wonder of nature in Ofterdingen: The bed of the river Steinlach provides the fascinating view of a 200-million-year-old seafloor from the Lower Jurassic. There are only a few places on earth where this is possible.

Hundreds of ammonites and fossil oyster shells can be seen here. The stream reveals its secret on a distance of over hundred meters only at low tide. You can imagine how ammonites once populated the Jurassic Sea, died and turned to stone. Since the Lower Jurassic, the oldest part of the Jurassic period, a sea covered the area of today's Swabian Alb for about 58 million years. The sea animals and plants have been preserved as fossils in the rock until today.

The "Ofterdinger Ammonitenpflaster” (ammonite pavement) is a national geosite and strictly protected.