The collections of vertebrate fossils include more than 10,000 items, most of which found in the Triveneto area.
The fascinating fish of Bolca, crocodiles and sirenians (aquatic mammals like manatees and dugongs) are just some of the fossils offering evidence of the tropical landscapes that characterized the south west area of the Veneto region between fifty and thirty million years ago.
Along with these are numerous remains of dolphins from the Belluno area, datable to around 15 million years ago, when a large part of the Veneto was still under water, or the curious dwarf elephants and giant dormice of Sicily and the multitude of animals that braved the long icy winters of the Pleistocene era: cave bears, Irish elks, sabre-tooth tigers, woolly rhinoceros, mammoths…
Among the rarities on exhibition in the halls is the Tridentinosaurus antiquus, one of Italy’s most famous fossil reptiles, dating back 280 million years.
Visitors can also admire beautiful marine reptiles and flying reptiles from Germany, datable to the Jurassic period (between 200 and 135 million years ago), which lived in the age of the dinosaurs.
