FOSSILIA - Reports in Palaeontology

The “Brunella” Project: preparation and study of a
mysticete from the Early Pliocene of Tuscany

 

Roberta Scotton¹, Renzo Bigazzi¹, Simone Casati², Giuseppe D’Amore*, Sylvia Di Marco¹, Luca Maria Foresi³, Elizabeth Koenig⁴, Luca Ragaini⁵, Jacopo Tabolli⁶, Massimo Tarantini⁷, Giandonato Tartarelli⁸ & Michelangelo Bisconti⁹

¹ Istituto di Studi Archeo-Antropologici, Via delle Cascine 46, 50018, Scandicci (Firenze); robertascotton@yahoo.it; renzo.bigazzi@teletu.it; g_damore@libero.it; sylvia_dimarco@libero.it

² Gruppo AVIS di Mineralogia e Paleontologia Scandicci, Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1, 50018, Scandicci (Firenze); simonecasati@alice.it

³ Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell’Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Siena, via Laterina 8, 53100, Siena; luca.foresi@unisi.it

⁴ Banfi s.r.l., Castello di Poggio alle Mura, 53024, Montalcino (Siena); elizabeth.koenig@banfi.it

⁵ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, via Santa Maria 53, 56126, Pisa; ragaini@dst.unipi.it 

⁶ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Siena, Grosseto, Arezzo, via di Città 138/140, 53100, Siena; jacopo.tabolli@beniculturali.it;

⁷  Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Firenze e le province di Pistoia e Prato, Piazza de' Pitti 1, 50125, Firenze; massimo.tarantini@beniculturali.it

⁸ Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza Cavalieri, 56100, Pisa; tartarelli@sns.it

⁹ San Diego Natural History Museum, 1788 El Prado, CA 92101, San Diego, United States of America; michelangelobisconti@gmail.com;  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0281-4863

 

How to cite: Scotton et al. (2018). The “Brunella” Project: preparation and study of a mysticete from the Early Pliocene of Tuscany. Fossilia, Volume 2018: 61-63. https://doi.org/10.32774/FosRepPal.20.1810.156163

Bullet-Points Abstract

  • A project is being carried out at Poggio alle Mura that will allow the preparation and study of a balaenopterid whale from the early Pliocene of Tuscany together with its associated biota. 
  • Up to now, the project resulted in the preparation of 18 vertebrae, the skull and an ulna of the whale.
  • The associated biota includes 18 mollusk species, 2 sea urchin species, 10 shark teeth and thousands of fish remains from the sediment surrounding the skull.
  • A wealth of educational activities is being carried out at the laboratory of Poggio alle Mura that are directed to schools and citizens. 

Keywords: mysticeti; Pliocene; Tuscany; anatomy; paleoenvironment.

 
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Fig. 1. The “Brunella” project. A, the skull of the mysticete in the slab where it was preserved together with abundant mollusks. B, another view of the skull with the bones digitally colored in blue for closer individuation. C, the skull with rostrum digitally colored in orange and neurocranium in blue. D, a group of lumbar vertebrae, caudal vertebrae and chevrons in the slab where they are preserved. E, a student of a summer school during preparation activities on “Brunella”’s ribs.

Cited References