The macrosemiiform fish companion of the Late Jurassic theropod Juravenator from Schamhaupten, Bavaria, Germany

Numerous fossils were recovered during the excavations in the quarry in the Schambachtal near Schamhaupten, Bavaria, between 1989 and 1998 conducted by the Jura-Museum Eichst tt, Bavaria, Germany with support of the Friends of the Jura-Museum Eichst tt. The brothers Hans-Joachim (y) and Klaus-Dieter Weiss, who worked as volunteers in Schamhaupten, found an outstanding reptile that was recovered in many pieces in August 1998. The specimen required the skills of a professional preparator familiar with the fossils of the region to expose the animal in its whole magnificence, and the preparation was entrusted to Mr. Giuseppe V lkl who has extensive experience with these fossils. G. Viohl, the director of the Jura-Museum at that time, communicated this finding in a short communication (Viohl 1999). He briefly described the conditions, in which the fossil was found and also the characteristics of the rock (“as hard as steel”), that make the preparation of fossils of Schamhaupten an extremely difficult task. Later, the fossil was described as Juravenator starki by G hlich & Chiappe (2006) (see also: G hlich et al. 2006; Tischlinger et al. 2006; Chiappe & G hlich