With its fascinating historical setup, featuring fossil fish slabs contained in ancient wooden display cabinets, the room exhibits findings from the Bolca deposit in the province of Verona. It testifies to the presence of a tropical sea in that area during the Eocene period (55 to 33 million years ago). Bolca is a small hamlet of Vestenanuova, in the province of Verona, in the Lessini Mountains. The area around this village has globally renowned for nearly five centuries for its rich fossiliferous deposits from the Eocene era, from which thousands of fossils, mainly fish, have been extracted.
The most notable deposits are the ‘Pesciara’ and Monte Postale, remnants of ancient tropical lagoons where magnificent fish, resembling those found in modern coral reefs, along with plant remains and a diverse range of ‘minor’ fauna such as coelenterates, molluscs, crustaceans, insects, bird feathers, and rare snake remains, have been discovered. What sets this deposit apart is not only the wide variety of species and the significant number of specimens found but also the exceptional state of preservation of the fossils. To further emphasize their beauty, a large image projection is displayed.
