Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland/Italy

This site is located in the border area of Lombardy in southeastern Switzerland and northern Italy. It covers a core protection area of 10.8 km² and has a buffer zone of 32 km². In 2003, the main part on the Swiss side was added to the World Heritage List, and it was expanded to include the Italian side in 2010. The forest-covered Mount St. George looks like a pyramid and stands on the southern side of Lugano in Ticino, Switzerland. It is considered to be the most complete record of marine life from the Triassic (240 to 230 million years ago). The sequence of fossils documents forms of life that were protected in a tropical lagoon environment but were partially isolated by offshore reefs. The marine life in the lagoon was unusually rich. The fossils include marine reptiles, fish, bivalves, echinoderms and crustaceans. Because the lagoon was close to the land, there are also many terrestrial biofossils, including terrestrial reptiles, insects and plants. As a result, the heritage site...