The present special issue of PalZ Paläontologische Zeitschrift contains articles on the topic of ‘Palaeobiology and Geobiology of Fossil Lagerstätten through Earth History’ mostly related to presentations at the joint conference of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft and the Palaeontological Society of China that took place at the Georg-August University Göttingen in September 2013 (Reich and Reitner 2013; Reich et al. 2013; Reitner et al. 2013) or to the conference patron by that time – Adolf Seilacher (Seilacher 2013a, b).

Seilacher, who was a professor at Göttingen University between 1963 and 1965, published trend-setting papers on palaeobiology and introduced the today common term (Fossil) Lagerstätten for deposits with exceptionally preserved fossils. Unfortunately, he passed away recently (e.g., Briggs 2014; Hagdorn 2014; Reitner this issue; Reitner and Reich 2014), and for this reason the present issue also is dedicated to him.