The Pannonian Sea, part of the Central Paratethys, 14.5 million years ago, also covered the area of today's Požega region, the hills of which were islands at that time. Warm and shallow waters were teeming with life.
The seabed was covered with seagrasses and accumulations of red algae called rhodolites and occasionally, smaller reefs formed from corals, sponges, oysters, and bryozoans. Sandy seabeds were inhabited by sea urchins and starfish, sea snails, crabs and various types of shells.
Numerous animals floated or swam in the Pannonian Sea, ranging from very small planktonic ones, only visible under the microscope, to large sea monsters, rulers of the underwater world.
Alongside cuttlefish, squid, jellyfish, turtles, sardines, breams, groupers and rays, some species of fish that are now found only in tropical seas also inhabited this area, such as surgeonfish, which moved around the reefs and hid in their cavities. Whales swam through the Pannonian Sea, as well as the largest shark ever to have lived on our planet – the twenty-meter-long megalodon.
A group of dolphins performed a playful underwater dance and seals basked in the sun on the seaside when they were not in search of food.