The Mesozoic palaeoenvironmental richness of the Trieste Karst

Abstract

The Mesozoic of the Trieste Karst is part of the 90th Congress of the Italian Geological Society, Trieste Italy, 2021. The guide aims at documenting selected outcrops located on the Karst plateau where fossil richness is related to particular carbonate platform facies associations to highlight the area as an important archive for marine and continental palaeodiversity. The Trieste Natural History Museum holds the most important collection of Late Cretaceous fossils, including exceptionally preserved dinosaurs (Tethyshadros insularis), reptiles, land plants, crustaceans, and fishes of the Villaggio del Pescatore geosite. At the Villaggio del Pescatore geosite fossil-rich carbonate rhythmites are spectacularly exposed on quarried surfaces. At Cava Romana it is possible to observe the Upper Cretaceous rudist-rich platform facies of the Aurisina limestone. The Slivia quarry exposes a Cretaceous palaeokarst deposit made of large limestone blocks. The Cenomanian peritidal carbonate succession of the Moschenizza hill shows m-thick rudist limestone beds, and cm-thick dark-coloured, muddy wackestones sporadically rich in fossil land plants like Frenelopsis.