Late Triassic Konservat-Lagerstätten within the Carnian Pluvial Episode in Austria

A new book on the Carnian Pluvial Episode in Austria and the history of 150 years of scientific excavations is presented (Lukeneder A ed. 2026). It is nearly 40 years since Alastair H. Ruffel and Mike J. Simms stumbled upon the realisation that the Carnian Stage of the Late Triassic had experienced a dramatic episode of climate change that had profoundly affected the Global biota (Simms and Ruffell 1989; Simms et al. 1994).

Although the work of these authors more than 30 years ago recognized the widespread biotic changes seen through the Carnian Stage, they were unaware of an additional fascinating element of this interval, that of the Early Carnian Konservat-Lagerstätten (Lukeneder A and Lukeneder P 2021) described in this volume. Previous publications relating to these Lagerstätten occur scattered through literature spanning more than a century, but by bringing together a diverse range of geoscientists to address multiple aspects of this particular example at a key time during Earth history, this volume can substantially increase awareness of it. Given the importance of the CPE in Earth history, the Austrian Triassic Konservat-Lagerstätten must now rank alongside others with a higher profile and long history of research: Ediacara and counterparts at other sites around the world, the Burgess Shale, and the Solnhofen Limestone.

The chapters in this new multi-author volume fall into three broad categories: documentary, covering the history of research here and an exploration of techniques; paleontological; and stratigraphic, encompassing paleontology, mineralogy and geochemistry. The depth and diversity of the contributions in this volume add greatly to the knowledge of the CPE and how it developed.