The Perde Fogu outcrop: a classical exposure of Orthoceras limestone in the Fluminimaggiore area (SW Sardinia)

The Fluminimaggiore area has a special significance both for Sardinian palaeontology and Palaeozoic studies in Italy. Meneghini (1857) in fact just here illustrated nautiloids, bivalves and graptolites and Canavari (1899) reported ostracodes. The locality, discovered by General La Marmora in 1839, was originally named Cea Sant’Antonio (or Xea S. Antonio). The original outcrop was formed by displaced blocks of black limestone rolled downhill or collected and piled up by farm-workers in dry-stone walls along the paths close to the old cemetery of the village. The importance of Meneghini’s paper(Paléontologie de L’Ile de Sardaigne - 548 pages and 4 plates all describing Palaeozoic fossils) was only lately appreciated probably because it was included in the larger threevolumemonograph Voyage en Sardaigne edited by A. La Marmora.