FOSSILIFEROUS RESERVE

The Chiuzbaia Fossiliferous Reserve is a paleontological protected area of national interest, located on the southern side of the Igniș peak, between the Valea Plopilor valley and the cliff called Spiridon's Church (Biserica lui Spiridon). The reserve is named after Prof. Univ. Răzvan Givulescu, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy, who undertook paleontology and paleobotany studies here for several decades.

The reserve has an area of 50 hectares and represents a mountainous region covered with beech, oak, hornbeam, mountain ash or birch trees and an outcrop located in its area.

This natural area is of particular scientific interest due to the fossil remains discovered here. The fossil material from Chiuzbaia preserves the relicts of some lakes whose banks have preserved as in an authentic herbarium, the herbal remains of a luxuriant forest, attributed to the geological period of the Pliocene. Exotic tree leaves, mosses and ferns, fish skeletons and fossil insects have been preserved over millions of years between layers of rock and volcanic ash.

The fossil flora in this reserve includes 55 families, 107 genera and 240 species.

The richness of the fossil material and the species make the flora of Chiuzbaia be unique in the south-east part of Europe.