Cape Aspro, Pissouri

Geological time

Miocene Pliocene Pleistocene

Age: 5.33–2.58 million years ago
Period: Pliocene
Formation: Lefkosia Formation
Depositional environment: Open marine shelf
Fossil types: Gastropods, bivalves, corals, marine vertebrates
Paleoecology highlights: Warm temperate waters, high sea level, coral patches, well-oxygenated surface waters, occasional bottom-water anoxia

Imagine warm, shallow waters stretching over what is now the sun-bleached cliffs of Cape Aspro. The sea glows in hues of turquoise and pale blue, gently rippling above a soft, marl-covered seafloor. In the clear depths, colonies of corals anchor themselves to firm patches, forming scattered reef mounds that break up the gentle plain. Between them, beds of fine calcareous mud settle quietly, rich with drifting plankton and microscopic shells. Occasional layers of still, oxygen-starved water leave streaks of dark sapropel in the sediment. The waters above shimmer with sunlight toward the surface, alive with swarms of plankton and all sorts of pelagic marine life.

Map

Tree of Life

Cape Aspro, Pissouri

Autobranchia

Bivalvia

Ostreida

Scaphopoda

Unclassified

Xiphioidea