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Showing results for tags 'cyprus'.
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I photographed that today and wonder what it is. Could it be a octopus? Max
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Hello everyone As my last vacation turned out to be quite a challenge in terms of weather, I decided to try another destination – this time the one that guaranteed good and warm climate, namely Cyprus. The summer months mean temperatures around 35- 40 C, so the dominant colour all over the island is now orange and all the rivers are completely dry In several parts of the island you can see the traces of wildfires – here the residents managed to put out the fire right before the ancient monastery Cyprus is a great place to see ancient archeological sites with beautifully preserved mosaics as well as pretty coast and lagoons The most green part of the island is the Troodos Mountains which have some hidden gems, like waterfalls and inland lagoons The first fossil site we visited is situated near Peyia, close to the Edro III shipwreck: There are some beautiful sea caves along the shore The rocks come from the Upper Miocene period and are full of fossils Here are some close-ups of the rocks The next location, Salamiou, was described online as the place, where (I quote): “ecological treasure has been discovered, including fossils of trees and corals dating back 423 million years ago.” Once we arrived in the village, we started asking around, however the local residents (including people who spent their whole lives in there ) had absolutely no idea, where anything like this could be located. After a brief council over ice coffee, with a participation of the village mayor, one resident – Frionis – was delegated, to take the crazy tourist around in his 4x4 car to look for fossils. We went to the rock which the villagers thought could be the right one – it looks like this To get there, we crossed river bed but the rock turned out to be just the rock – and there was nothing interesting among the rocks in the river, either. Anyway, we were happy to do an off-road tour – here is a picture of our accidental guide – Frionis (armed with a stick against snakes) The next location was fairly easy to find – its name is Kakkaristra Gorge and it’s located within a 10-minute drive from the capital city, Nicosia. Again, it’s Miocene site – and you literally walk on fossils The fossils cover all the walls of the gorge The next site was near Agrokipia – it’s called Kottaphi Hill. It looks like this The top is covered with a lot of small rubble – some pieces comprised indeed remains of Miocene corals and shells I will finish the report with a typical vacation picture – a beautiful sunset I hope you enjoyed the report!
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The fossils (if that's what they are) shown in the attached photos were found on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus. I found the shell on the surface of a footpath and on puling it out of the ground found the two mystery items embedded underneath. I know next to nothing about fossils, geology or similar topics, so my total amateur guess is that they are teeth or maybe hand or toe bones from some creature, but I open it to you to help identify them. They are identical in form, the smaller one 28mm long, the other 45mm. They are as hard as stone, but not stone as far as know. Where they were both embedded left quite distinctive markings, like layers or the surface of a shell (see photo.) If you have any thoughts on what they are and can satisfy my curiosity - thanks!