The Owadów-Brzezinki geoeducation area at Sławno

Błażej Błażejowski,Andrzej Wierzbowski

doi:10.7494/geotour.2020.1-2(60-61).39-45

Błażej Błażejowski, Andrzej Wierzbowski

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7494/geotour.2020.1-2(60-61).39-45

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Abstract

The geoeducation area (called also “Owadów-Brzezinki Geopark”) located in the north-western margin of the Holy Cross Mountains (Tomaszów Syncline) at Sławno community (Łódź Voivodeship), was established in June 2019, in close vicinity of the Owadów-Brzezinki quarry. This locality is one of the most important palaeontological sites described recently in Poland. The area consists of the exhibition pavilion, educational routs and panoramic viewing platform, which is located along the edge of the quarry. The palaeontological exhibition shows the unique Late Jurassic fossils of marine and terrestrial organisms, many of them new to science, that have been excavated in the quarry during the last eight years. Among the most important fossils are: ammonites, lobster-like decapod crustaceans, horseshoe crabs, actinopterygian fish, a cryptodiran turtle, ichthyosaurs, as well as a small terrestrial crocodyliform, pterosaurs and insects. In addition to the original fossils, the exhibition presents life-size reconstructions of animals, that inhabited the local seas and islands during the Late Jurassic. The palaeontological sites of Owadów-Brzezinki is referred to as a new “taphonomic window” of the Late Jurassic, providing insights about the evolution of life on Earth in the palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental context.

Highlights

Palaeontological sites, where major scientific discoveries are made, often stimulate the imagination of those who take an interest in the history of life on Earth
They constitute the perfect foundation for the popularization of fields such as geology and palaeontology, and with time, they become significant from the point of view of geotourism and tourist development of the regions in which they are located
Among the most interesting are: the Jura Museum Eichstätt at the Upper Jurassic limestone quarries in the region of Solnhofen-Eichstätt and the Hauff Museum, near the Lower Jurassic shales of the Holzmaden (Baden-Württemberg) region. In both of these regional palaeontological museums, the exhibition of original fossils is supplemented with natural-size reconstructions of animals

Summary

Introduction

Palaeontological sites, where major scientific discoveries are made, often stimulate the imagination of those who take an interest in the history of life on Earth. In Poland, a site of similar type and of high scientific rank is the Owadów-Brzezinki quarry (Fig. 1), located about 20 km south of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, and at junction near the Warsaw–Katowice expressway This site displays the Upper Jurassic carbonate rocks, which yield exceptionally interesting fossils of marine and terrestrial organisms (Kin et al, 2013; Błażejowski et al, 2016; Tyborowski et al, 2016). The ideal cooperation of the scientific community, the local government authorities of the Sławno commune and the owner of the Owadów-Brzezinki quarry (Nordkalk Company) resulted in the creation of a thematic geoeducation area (called geopark; Fig. 2), the official opening of which took place in June 2019 It includes a palaeontological pavilion (Fig. 3) and geoeducational trails (Fig. 4), located in the immediate vicinity of the active quarry. The remains of organisms accumulated in the lagoon waters and were perfectly preserved in the fossil state

Fossils as the main differentiator of the area

Cooperation of three entities