Collection: Catullo Collection

Systematic/ Paleontology

Reign: Animalia
Phylum/Division: Chordata (Vertebrata)
Class: Osteichthyes
Scientific name: Pycnodus gibbus Agassiz

Geological age

Geochronology (Chronostratigraphy)

Eon (Eontema): Phanerozoic
Era (Eratema): Cenozoic
Period (System): Paleogene
Epoca (Serie): Eocene
Other chronological subdivisions: Eocene

Description: The specimen belongs to the Pycnodontiformes Order, extinct in the Eocene, of which the specimens from Bolca are the latest recorded. "The field of Monte Bolca," as the old writers called it, has been known for a long time. The first mention dates back to 1555, when Andrea Mattioli in his "Discourses on Dioscorides" reported about the field of Bolca and its fossils. A first collection of Bolca’s fossils was made by Francesco Calceolari in 1571. In the eighteenth century part of the Pesciara di Bolca was owned by the Marquis Scipione Maffei, a friend of Vallisneri. Vallisneri and other authors were wandering to understand how the field ahd formed. In 1716 Sebastiano Rotari described the Bolca quarry in a detailed letter to Vallisneri. In another letter, Luigi Ferdinando Marsili replied to Vallisneri, giving information about the Bolca field.

Location

Continent/Subcontinent: Europe
State: Italy
Region: Veneto
Province: Verona
Municipality: Vestenanova
Place: Bolca

Università degli Studi di Padova, Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia

Item code: 7433C

Bibliography

• Fornasiero Mg., Piccoli G., 2000- "I Fossili" . In Catalogo della Mostra "La curiosità e l'ingegno. Collezionismo scientifico e metodo sperimentale a Padova nel Settecento". Pp. 146-159, 13 ff., e p. 256, Università degli Studi di Padova, Centro Musei Scienfici, Padova.