Sara Biolchi, Stefano Devoto, Stefano Furlani, Igor Belamarić, Franco Cucchi, Radoslav Dodig, Goran Glamuzina, Jernej Jež, Bogdan Jurkovšek, Tea Kolar-Jurkovšek, Karmen Peternelj, Fabiana Pieri, Luca Zini, Gordana Zwicker Kompar, Irina Žeger Pleše
In the Italian part of the eligible area, the Carso/Kras belonging to Trieste and Gorizia counties, many geosites have been recently inventoried by the Geological Survey of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and stored at WebGIS, at:
http://irdat.regione.fvg.it/WebGIS/GISViewer.jsp?template=configs:ConfigMAAS/Geodiversita.xml.
These have been selected owing to their significant geological, paleontological, sedimentological and geomorphological features. Among these, the geosite of the “Antonio” dinosaur of the Villaggio del Pescatore in the north-western part of the Trieste Carso/Kras (Duino-Aurisina/Devin Nabrežina municipality) is the most famous and is of international importance (Fig. 4.20).
The dinosaur (called Antonio) was lying inside densely laminated horizons of platy limestone, Late Cretaceous in age, and was found together with other interesting and precious fossils, such as other dinosaur bones, crocodiles and fishes. Antonio was a hadrosauroid dinosaur, belonging to the species Tethyshadros insularis (Dalla Vecchia, 2009). It is one of the most complete dinosaur fossils ever found and shows, for the first time ever, the entire morphology of a hadrosauroid phylogenetically close to but outside the North American and Asiatic hadrosaurids. It lived on an island developed on a carbonate platform in the Tethys Ocean, and its small size suggests it may have been an isolated dwarf.
This fossil, 4 m long and 700 kg in weight, is one of many other possible fossils in the area. Its presence enabled a better understanding of the late Cretaceous age in this area (late Campanian), which was characterized by a tropical climate, lush vegetation and rich fauna.
This site is already under the protection of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cultural Heritage Authority
This site is already under the protection of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cultural Heritage Authority (Soprintendenza Archeologia del Friuli Venezia Giulia) and has become a visitor centre, where a duplicate of the dinosaur is exhibited; the original is exhibited in the Museo di Storia Naturale of Trieste (Natural History Museum).
The preservation of this site, rich in fossils, represents a challenge for the Italian side of the eligible area, since it is the most representative platy limestone site with outstanding fossils.
