Val Mara visitor platform

Discover the youngest fossiliferous rocks of the Heritage site

The Gaggiolo River gorge is carved into finely-bedded limestone and marl of the upper Meride Limestone, the so-called Kalkschieferzone. Here since 1936, in various  excavations, the youngest vertebrate fossils at the Middle Triassic Word Heritage Site were discovered. The visitor platform gives a view of the 239 million year old marine sediments where the fossils were found. The content, available in Italian, German and English, includes educational panels, binoculars, casts and models of fossils, a stone wall and a reconstruction of the Middle Triassic environment, when Val Mara was a subtropical sea basin.

 

The visitor platform of the Val Mara is immersed in the woods in one of the most evocative panoramic points of Monte San Giorgio. A unique opportunity a few steps away (10 minutes walk) from the picturesque village of Meride and the Museum of fossils in the direction of Serpiano, where you can discover the paleontology and geology of one of the main excavation places of the World Heritage site.

Short film

3:12 min. ©FMSG, 2019

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