The fossil lagerstätte Sandelzhausen is one of the richest vertebrate fossil sites of Europe’s terrestrial Miocene. It was discovered in 1959 and intensively exploited during two campaigns (1969–1975, 1994–2001). In the last decade, the Sandelzhausen research group of international specialists was established and spurred the investigation of the fauna. A first volume on a major part of that collaboration was published in 2009 in the Paläontologische Zeitschrift 83(1), but due to the pleasing high output on scientific results, not all manuscripts could be considered. Thanks to O. Rauhut (Munich, Germany), editor of the Paläontologische Zeitschrift, the present follow-up-volume was offered to cover all manuscripts left on systematics and palaeoecology of the ectothermic vertebrates, the Proboscidea, the Suoidea, and the Ruminantia. In this context, we here gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the referees J. Damuth (Santa Barbara, CA, USA), B. Engesser (Basel, Switzerland), J. M. Fahlke (Bonn, Germany), M. Gasparik (Budapest, Hungary), A.W. Gentry (London, United Kingdom), E.J.P. Heizmann (Stuttgart, Germany), J. Klembara (Brno, Czech Republic), Liu Liping (Beijing, China), G. N. Markov (Sofia, Bulgaria), B. Reichenbacher (Munich, Germany), W. Sanders (Ann Arbor/Michigan, U.S.A.), N. Solounias (Old Westbury/New York, U.S.A.), and M. Wuttke (Mainz, Germany) to this second Sandelzhausen volume. We further thank the “Freunde der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Historische Geologie München e.V.” for the financial support of the production of the volume.

We dedicate this second Sandelzhausen volume to Volker Fahlbusch (Fig. 1), professor at the Institut für Paläontologie und historische Geologie of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, who passed away shortly before publication of the first Sandelzhausen volume.

Fig. 1
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Volker Fahlbusch in 2004

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Volker Fahlbusch was the initiator of the intensified exploitation and exploration of the fossil lagerstätte Sandelzhausen and was the leading scientist for 40 years. He ardently spent a major part of his life on the investigation into this fossil site. At the International Sandelzhausen Symposium 2005 in Mainburg (Germany), the last scientific meeting he attended, Volker was in his element: his knowledge on the quarry was central to all of our discussions as well as important background to all contributions of both Sandelzhausen volumes. His name will for ever be tightly linked with the fossil site Sandelzhausen.