Clivio/Besano/Viggiù (VA), Mendrisio/Brusino Arsizio (CH)
On the Italian side of Monte San Giorgio the excursion usually begins at Besano and according to the time available (from 2 to 8 hours) can reach various sites of geo-paleontological and historical interest, both in Italy and in Switzerland.
The aim of the pathway furnished with information panels is to help in the discovery of the rock formations of the MSG. These formations are testimonies to the differing environments which developed from the Permian to the Mid Triassic period and that in some cases have permitted the preservation of many of the organisms that inhabited them. It is clearly impossible to visit fossils preserved in situ as they are very delicate and to leave them exposed to bad weather would quickly lead to their rapid degradation and consequent total destruction. Notwithstanding it is very important to be able to associate the fossils admired in the museum to the differing rocks that had contained them for tens of millions of years.
This helps us to better understand that not all of the organisms that are found on the MSG lived contemporarily and in the same habitat. In fact the main fossil succession of the MSG covers an interval of a few million years, around five according to the latest studies (in the recent past it was thought to be ten million years) and it is possible to identify 6-8 differing groups of fossil organisms. Also the environment in which life flourished has undergone changes, passing from an exclusively marine environment to a lagoon that was at least temporarily flooded with fresh water.
The aim of the pathway furnished with information panels is to help in the discovery of the rock formations of the MSG. These formations are testimonies to the differing environments which developed from the Permian to the Mid Triassic period and that in some cases have permitted the preservation of many of the organisms that inhabited them. It is clearly impossible to visit fossils preserved in situ as they are very delicate and to leave them exposed to bad weather would quickly lead to their rapid degradation and consequent total destruction. Notwithstanding it is very important to be able to associate the fossils admired in the museum to the differing rocks that had contained them for tens of millions of years.
This helps us to better understand that not all of the organisms that are found on the MSG lived contemporarily and in the same habitat. In fact the main fossil succession of the MSG covers an interval of a few million years, around five according to the latest studies (in the recent past it was thought to be ten million years) and it is possible to identify 6-8 differing groups of fossil organisms. Also the environment in which life flourished has undergone changes, passing from an exclusively marine environment to a lagoon that was at least temporarily flooded with fresh water.