This is one of the most important Italian Triassic fossil deposits. Situated near the village of Fusea (Tolmezzo, Udine), its importance lies in the presence of an abundant and relatively diversified association of fossil vertebrates from the Triassic era, at the limit between the Ladinian and Carnian planes (circa 230 millioin years ago).

At the beginning of the 20th century the area was used for coal extraction for industrial use. Fragments of plant fossils were found in the black limestone on the site in 1924 by the Carnian geologist Michele Gortani, however he never described them in a scientific publication. The outcrop was “rediscovered” in the early 1970s, the most important find being the cranium of a placodont reptile, described by Zucchi Stolfa (1975) and later by Pinna & Zucchi Stolfa (1979) and named Placochelys placodonta. This find, housed in the Friulan Natural History Museum after many vicissitudes, was examined for a third time and attributed to the genus Cyamodus (Rieppel & Nosotti, 2001). Due to their widely recognised importance the fossil bearing levels are being excavated by the Friulan Natural History Museum.

The most common vertebrate fossils are isolated teeth from fish: Chondricthyes Elasmobranchs durophagy (mainly Paleobates angustissimus ) and Osteichthyes Actinopterygii ( Sphaerodus, Saurichthys and other types). The Osteichthyes Sarcopterygii are represented by rare cranial bones of a dipnoi (lunged fish) not yet formally described in a scientific publication.

As regards the tetrapods, to date bones and teeth from the reptiles Notosauroides ( Nothosaurus ), Placodont cyamodontoides and Archosaurus, and Tanystropheus have been documented. There was also an interesting tooth perhaps attributable to a cynodonte (mammal-like reptiles). Fossils of invertebrates are also present (bivalves, gastropods and ostracods) together with plant remains (including the coal which used to be extracted). The finds come from a stratigraphic section only a few metres thick and the outcrop presents layers of sedimentary rock running parallel to the slope with a great fan of detritus at the bottom. A date within the basal Carnian period (beginning of the Upper Triassic) appears likely, even though to date no fossils of particular bio-stratigraphic importance have been identified.