“The Miocene of Northern Croatia – From Mud to Gold” at the Krapina Neanderthal Museum

Krapina Neanderthal Museum, Old Museum Exhibition Hall – Kneipp Building
5 September 2018

The exhibition “The Miocene of Northern Croatia (From Mud to Gold)” presents the transformations of northern Croatia over a period of nearly 20 million years, during which the landscape of the region changed continuously. Throughout the Early, Middle, and Late Miocene, the area was shaped by diverse environments, including marine settings, brackish and freshwater lakes, braided rivers, wetlands, and, less frequently, terrestrial habitats.

The former Paratethys Sea, and later Lake Pannon, once covered much of northern Croatia, where dynamic biological and sedimentary processes took place, accompanied by occasional episodes of volcanic activity. These events are recorded in thick Miocene sedimentary deposits containing the remains of ancient life, including bivalves, gastropods, foraminifera, ostracods, diatoms, silicoflagellates, algae, corals, sea urchins, crustaceans, fish, whales, sea cows, prehistoric elephants, prehistoric horses, pollen and spores, leaves, trunks and fruits of gymnosperms and angiosperms, insects, many other organisms, and traces of their activity preserved as trace fossils (ichnofossils).