Evolutionary history

History

The finds at Monte San Giorgio provide clues about the origin of these organism. Tracing their development back, we reach their primal forms, which can be compared with fossils from other areas. The latest research puts the origins of the Triassic marine fauna in the Guizhou Province of southern China, where rich layers of sediments holding vertebrates were found. By comparing these life forms with Triassic marine fossils found in other places, such as Tibet, Iran or Turkey, we can hypotesise that ocean currents carried these organisms westwards from what is now China to the sea area that would much later on become Monte San Giorgio. Unlike deposits found in Guizhou, however, which to date have revealed only a relatively limited diversity of fish and reptiles, the strata at Monte San Giorgio show a real explosion of life forms.