The exhibition of fossils from Orjen opened in the mountaineering home "Za Vratlom". The organizer of the exhibition is the Agency for Development and Protection of Orjen and host is the mountain club "Subra". The exhibition includes up to 20 items, of which 14 are fossils, a specimen of stone from Djuric, and five exhibits with cherts.
The Agency for the Development and Protection of Orjen, with the fossil exhibition, opens the European Day of Parks, marked on May 24th, and wants to point out to some of the lesser-known attractions of the Herceg Novi mountain hinterland and intensify their more detailed scientific studies.
"In Orjen, in sedimentary rocks, predominantly at altitudes between 1000 and 1400 m, there are frequent paleontological finds of sea shells from the period of chalk (from 145.5 to 65.5 million years). These are the so-called rudimentary shells, the builders of springs. They are long-shapes similar to horns, but also cones with a lid, spirals, etc. This group of shells was completely extinct at the end of the chalk period (along with dinosaurs and 70% of other organisms), probably as a result of the impact of the large meteor that hit the Earth near Yucatan," said the Agency.
They explained that in the limestones of the outer Dinarides, which belongs to Orjen, there are a lot of fossils of these shells.
"These are the fossils which can reach the size of more than two meters, but these on Orjen are mostly of modest dimensions, usually placed close together. In some zones, there is almost every stone, so they are very easy to spot. Such is the case on the path Vratlo - the mountaineering home with surroundings, a part of the mountain Ubalj, the southeastern foot of Subra, as well as other places. Larger and better-preserved fossil shells can be seen in the lower parts, closer to the sea," said the agency.
In addition to the fossils, there is a specimen of a sedimentary reddish rock of glassy structure (Djuric’s stone), natural raw material of the upper chalk middle age period, which celebrated Kamenari, as well as interesting pieces of flint (chert), very widespread in certain areas of Subra, where we see them embedded in limestone rocks. It consists primarily of silicon dioxide. Its hardness is considerably higher than the hardness of the limestone, so the cherts were due to this characteristic and very sharp edges, a favorite material from which different tools were produced in the stone age.
The museum's adviser Goran Culafic, assistant director of museum affairs at the Natural History Museum in Podgorica, gave his expert assistance in interpreting the collected findings.
Text by Slavica Kosic, on May 23rd, 2019, read more at Vijesti
