DOLOMITES - Annexes 2-8 - Provincia di Udine

NOMINATION OF THE DOLOMITES FOR INSCRIPTION ON THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE LIST UNESCO
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1999; 2001). On the basis of materials carried into the basin, which include, besides ‘Cipit’, oolithic-bioclastic
turbidites, one can hypothesize that the platform margin comprised a complex mesh of
bioconstructed areas, substantially dominated by microbialitic automicrites affected by early cementation,
and areas in which calcarenite shoals developed.
Detail of a Cipit boulder
Corals and Sponges from Cipit Boulders
The inner platform facies are mainly characterized by plane-parallel stratification, and it is possible to
distinguish an association of essentially subtidal facies comprising fine grain carbonates (dolomites),
of a fossiliferous nature (with large gastropods, internal patterns of bivalves, heads of colonial corals
both in living position and knocked down), that alternate with facies of subaerial exposure, dominated
by teepees on a metric scale, associated with pisolites and stromatolites layers. With regard to
the fossil content it is important to remember that often the peritidal deposits of the inner lagoons
of the Cassian Dolomite in the southern sectors, where the platforms were probably joined to a continental
dry land, are rich in footprints of tetrapods and small dinosaurs (Avanzini et alii, 2000) so
documenting the vicinity to a continental dry land.