It is well known that Sardinia has, in different areas of its territory, valuable fragments of its geological history. A present-day tropical setting can help us imagine what Duidduru might have looked like in the Miocene; the stratigraphy of the site and the wealth of fossils present are some of the elements that make the site scientifically interesting. The work of palaeontologists and geologists from the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Sassari and Nuoro and professors from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cagliari has enabled the reconstruction of the Miocene environment.
The fossils in the area date back to the Miocene; the finds belong to marine animal species that still live in shallow tropical waters. Their fossilization occurred by mineralization, and thanks to the sandstone, the fossils were excellently preserved. Some artefacts have been taken and studied; after a cleaning process by palaeontologists from the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Sassari and Nuoro, the fossils can be seen in the P.AR.C. exhibition hall.
The Geosito today
The site is like an open-air museum, rich in geological and paleontological information. The rich stratigraphy presents several events that occurred in the Miocene. A fossilised seafloor, rich in artefacts, can be admired; in the central part is a shoal of turritellas, the result of the meeting of sea and river, which created a lagoon. The wall also has two interesting evidences of an earthquake that occurred in Sardinia about 5 million years ago: an exposed fault and Neptunian strands.