LOCAL PALEONTOLOGICAL SITES

 LOCAL PALEONTOLOGICAL SITES

By, Mihail Buruiana and Ioana Miraute

Directed by Teacher, Dumitru Letos

^}   In Piatra Neamț’s adjacent city or area, there have been identified four fossil zones: Cozla, Cernegura, Pietricica and Agârcia. They are all protected areas of ​​national interest corresponding to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) category IV (paleontological type natural reservation) located in Neamț county, on the territory of the town Piatra Neamț.

^}   The fossiliferous geological context consists of stacks of thick soft rocks formed about 100 m deep in the Paratethys Sea (large shallow sea that stretched from the region north of the Alps over Central Europe to

the Aral Sea in Central Asia). A feature of this was to determine the sediment layers preservation of bodies of dead animals.

^}   Fossil marine fauna found here is very extensive, covering all available ecological niches - from coastal waters to the deepest areas of proper life.

Thus only Professor John Th. Simionescu (Romanian Paleontological School founder) described nine genera and eight new species and the monograph of 1977 Ciobanu described 26 families, 44 genera and 69 species of fossil fish, of which 29 new. Besides fish, in the Piatra Neamt area there have been discovered fossils of crabs and other crustaceans related, fossil turtles and bird fossils.

 AGÂRCIA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - LOCATION-

^}   The natural area with an area of 1ha is in the South-Western part of Piatra Neamț. It is located at an altitude of 400m above sea level, on the right side of the Doamna lake (tributary of the Bistrita river), in a geographical zone that was, in the Oligocene epoch, at the bottom of the Paratethys Sea.

AGÂRCIA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - RELEVANCE -

^}   The Natural Reservation was declared a protected area by Law No. 5 of March 6, 2000 (approving the National Spatial Plan Section III - protected areas) and is a paleontological area of ​​interest- in this case a hill of debris deposits fossil fish, assigned to the Oligocene period.

^}   Although the Agârcia existence of Oligocene fossil fish had been known for a long time, regular excavations here were made only in since 2002 with the support of the National Geographic Society. Systematic composition of local marine fish fauna differs from that of other contemporary paleontological sites from Cozla and Pietricica areas.

PIETRICICA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - LOCATION

^}   Natural reservation with an area of ​​39.50 hectares is in the center of Neamt county, east of Piatra Neamt, occupying the center of Pietricica Ridge slopes.

PIETRICICA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - DESCRIPTION-

^}   The reservation is a hilly area with paleontological interest, in layers of sedimentary rock consisting of sand, sandstone and marl, where fish fossils attributed to Oligocene, with a subtropical climate zone characteristic of that period were found.

COZLA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - LOCATION -

^}   The natural reservation is atop Cozla’s Stânișoarei Mountains (679m), north-west of Piatra Neamț in the space made by the angle between DN15 and DN15C.

 COZLA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - DESCRIPTION -

^}   The reservation, with an area of 10 hectars was declared a protected area by the Law Nr. 5 and 6 March 2000 and it represents a mountain zone of paleontological interest.

^}   Fossils identified here can be viewed at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Piatra Neamt.

CERNEGURA PALEONTOLOGICAL SITE - LOCATION -

^}   The natural reservation is located in the south-western part of Piatra Neamț, to the left of Bistrița river, on one of the slopes of the Cernegura mountain (852m). The geographical area mentioned, occupying an area of 198.20 ha, was, in the Oligocene epoch, on the bottom of the Paratethys Sea.