Ipolytarnóc ( sk, Ipeľský Trnovec) is a village in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

Nógrád county Nógrád ( hu, Nógrád megye, ; sk, Novohradská župa) is a county ( hu, megye) of Hungary. It sits on the northern edge of Hungary and borders Slovakia. Description Nógrád county lies in northern Hungary. It shares borders with Slovakia an ...

. There is a fossil site close to it, the Ipolytarnoc Fossils Nature Conservation Area.

Fossils

Sometimes referred to as the "Prehistoric Pompeii", Ipolytarnóc is the location of 23 to 17 million year old

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

. These include the teeth of 24 species of

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

s as well as the teeth of crocodiles and dolphins, an almost 100 m tall petrified pine, more than 15,000

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

exotic leaves and 3,000 animal

footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...

s of 11 species. This is one of the world's richest complex

fossil footprint A fossil track or ichnite (Greek "''ιχνιον''" (''ichnion'') – a track, trace or footstep) is a fossilized footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. A fossil trackway is a sequence of fossil tracks left by a single organism. Over the year ...

find sites. The fossils were preserved due to a

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...

catastrophe which buried a whole subtropical

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

under

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to refer ...

. The site became protected in 1944 and is managed by the Directorate of the

Bükk National Park Bükk National Park ( hu, Bükki Nemzeti Park) is a national park in the Bükk Mountains of Northern Hungary, near Miskolc. It was founded in 1977 as the third national park in the country. It contains 431.3 km2 (of which 37.74 km2 is u ...

. The site became the main gateway to the world's second transborder geopark, the Novohrad – Nógrád Geopark, in 2010. The site provides several day-long programmes, including guided tours along its geological study trail and 4D movies about the prehistoric past in its Visitor Centre. The geological trail was opened to the public in 1986.

External links

* http://osmaradvanyok.hu
Ipolytarnóc on Vendégváró (Hungary starts here)

Street map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ipolytarnoc Paleontological sites of Europe Fossil trackways Paleontology in Hungary