Muschelhöhle Röschitz

Mussel Cave - The primeval sea of Röschitz. A journey into the prehistory of the Weinviertel! The gray sands below the "cave cover" lie directly on the crystalline rocks of the Bohemian Massif - typical deposits of the coast that stretched between Znaim and Manhartsberg some 20 million years ago. The coast was rugged and consisted of numerous small rocky islands and bays, comparable to the granite coasts of Thailand today. In the shallow, subtropical sea, seagrass meadows developed where manatees grazed. Ribs of these herbivores have been found here. Among the predators were mako sharks, whose teeth are abundant. The shells of mussels and snails are almost completely dissolved. The "cave roof", however, is formed by a hardened sandstone layer - the coarse sands are cemented by lime. Numerous shells of limpets, saddle shells, oysters and scallops are preserved here. Limpets or patella, after which the cave is also called the "patella cave", lived in the immediate coastal area, sitting on rocks. Their arrangement, in distinct layers, shows that they were dug up by the waves during strong storms and washed together as shells. Bones of the small Brachyodus, similar to a tapir, were also washed into the sea from the coastal forests. The remains of this mammal can be admired in the Krahuletz Museum in Eggenburg. One of the special features is the complete shell of a turtle that was washed ashore and is now kept in the Natural History Museum in Vienna.