Odernheim am Glan

Odernheim am Glan is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Odernheim is a winegrowing village. Odernheim lies at the edge of the North Palatine Uplands at the mouth of the River Glan, where it empties into the River Nahe. This village, lying at the foot of the Disibodenberg, an important monastic centre in the Middle Ages, is surrounded by vineyards, forests and meadows in the southeastern part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim, and in the middle of the Nahe wine region. Among nearby towns, the Verbandsgemeinde seat of Bad Sobernheim lies 4 km to the northwest, the district seat of Bad Kreuznach 16 km to the northeast, Kirn 20 km to the west and Meisenheim 7 km to the south. Farther afield, Bingen am Rhein lies roughly 27 km to the north-northeast, while to the northeast lie Mainz (48 km), Wiesbaden just beyond and Frankfurt (80 km) Clockwise from the north, Odernheim's neighbours are the municipalities of Staudernheim, Duchroth, Lettweiler, Rehborn and Abtweiler, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district. Also belonging to Odernheim am Glan are the outlying homesteads of Am Kapellenberg, Birkenhof, Charlottenhof, Elsenpfuhl, Heddarterhof, Niedermühle, Sonnenberghof, Disibodenberg and Disibodenbergerhof. Some 290,000,000 years ago, in Rotliegend times during the Early Permian, a freshwater lake stretched out near what is now Odernheim am Glan, living in which were predatory ancient amphibians, now known to palaeontologists as Sclerocephalus haeuseri, that reached up to two metres in length. Known worldwide are the little Branchiosauridae (gilled lizards) Apateon pedestris and Micromelerpeton credneri from Odernheim. Also yielded by the investigations have been fossils of mayflies. Some fossils from Odernheim are on show at the Palaeontological Museum in Nierstein.