FLORENCE, ITALY – There’s a whale in Florence. It dates back to the Pliocene, when the Mediterranean sea was far away only 18 km from the Tuscan capital.
The whale skeleton was found in 2006 close to Castelfiorentino by Simone Casati, the president of GAMPS, the Avis Museum of Paleontology and Mineralogy in Scandicci, where the whale is preserved till today.
The museum has set up a teaching aid to schools and all those who are interested in learning the origins of the Tuscan territory. It is located on the first floor of in the former school in Badia a Settimo, which is known today as the Civico Ofelia Mangini.
All of the items on display in the museum are there thanks to the research done by members of GAMPS, including the paleontology items, which were also discovered by GAMPS members.
A room in the museum is showcases a systematic collection of minerals that was donated to the museum by the Pellegatta family. The paleontology section is comprised of 100 items, many of which are of great value and importance.
The 9-meter long Pliocene whale is the most complete fossilized skeleton of a whale in Europe, and is currently the subject of study as it may be the only evidence of a new whale species that is extinct today.
The Pliocene is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years before pressent. The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene was 2–3 °C higher than today, global sea level 25 m higher. Most of Italy was under the sea except for higher hills and mountains.
The Avis Museum of Paleontology and Mineralogy, piazza Vittorio Veneto 1, Badia a Settimo, Scandicci (Florence), opening hours: Sundays from 3pm-7pm; Wednesdays from 9pm-11:30pm. Free entrance.
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