Pannonian Sea Fossils in Hum Zabocki, Croatia - Places of Geologic Significance on Waymarking.com

Twenty million years ago, the area of Hrvatsko Zagorje was overflown by a sea. The sea is named Paratethys and it took position over a huge area between the Alps and the Aral Sea. The western and central part of Paratethys became isolated about 12 million years ago and became a huge, separated lake known as Pannonian Sea.

The Pannonian Sea occupied area between the Alps, the Carpathians and the Dinarides, i.e. the area of today's Pannonian Basin. The rivers filled Pannonian Sea with freshwater and over time changed original salinity of sea water into brackish, and finally resulting in freshwater lake. Rivers also brought gravel, sand, and mud from surrounding mountains. Sedimentation of such material over long periods of time led to shallowing of Pannonian Sea and reducing of the area of Pannonian Sea. Finally, some 5-6 million years ago the process of filling up of Pannonian Sea was completed and the Pannonian plane was formed.

The region of Hrvatsko Zagorje is largely covered by sediments deposited in the ancient Pannonian Sea. The most spectacular outcrop of these sediments can be found in Hum Zabocki. Thanks to the exploitation of sand in the past, a thick succession of sediments has been uncovered, consisting of sands, silts, clays and coal occurrences. These sediments were deposited withing shallow, near shore areas of the Pannonian Sea at the end of the Miocene, a geological epoch which began around 23 million years ago and ended at around 5 million years ago. Later, through geotectonic processes, the initially horizontal sediments were uplifted to the surface and tilted towards the south.

The sediments of Hum Zabocki harbor within them one of the most beautiful and abundant assemblages of fossils in Hrvatsko Zagorje. The most numerous assemblages are those of mollusks and snails, of which over 50 species and subspecies have been identified. Other common fossils include ostracods - crabs of microscopic dimensions, as well as fossils of lacustrine and land dwelling macroflora.

Sediments at the location are called Rhomboidea beds, and they get their name after one of mollusks species that are found here. These and other mollusks lived around 6 million years ago on the muddy and sandy bottom of shallow near shore areas of the Pannonian Sea. All those species disappeared with the demise of the Pannonia Sea, while their relatives can be found in today's freshwater and brackish lakes across the world.

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