Monday, August 29, 2016

Monte San Giorgio - Italy

The previous card wasn't the only new UNESCO site Marina sent me, she also sent this card from the italian side of Monte San Giorgio. I already had a card from the swiss side, now I've cards from both countries.

In 2003, UNESCO recognized the uniqueness and exceptional geo-paleontological of Monte San Giorgio, by entering the Swiss side of the mountain in the World Heritage List. In nominating reasons, Monte San Giorgio is identified as the best testimony of the geo-paleontological history in the marine environment dating back 247 to 235 million years ago that, through the thousands of fossils found in the last two centuries, has allowed to study in detail the evolution of many groups of marine organisms. 

© Jacques Perler
Since August 2, 2010, also the Italian side of the Monte San Giorgio entered the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage, as also requested by UNESCO itself, thus completing the recognition of the only area of ​​transnational paleontological importance.
The fossiliferous sequence of Monte San Giorgio is acknowledged as the best in the world especially for the study of the Middle Triassic marine vertebrates. It tells us that the environment at that time was that of a complex deep tropical lagoon between large carbonate platforms covered by a few meters of water, and the open sea.
Small, low islands dotting the carbonate platform and extensive land mass was a little further away to the west. This complex environment has allowed us to have the remains of mainly marine organisms and the rarest terrestrial organisms including some plants and insects.

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