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Hello everybody, My new museum tour focuses on the Geological and Palaeontological Museum of the University of Padua, Italy. I have visited more than 30 institutions in Italy, but this one remains my favourite. And it is generally acknowledged as having the most important collection of all the Italian universities. After seeing the pictures, I think that you'll agree with me!! The origin of the museum can be traced back to 1734 when the son of a professor donated his dead father's collections that were housed in a brand new natural sciences museum. in the following decades many more scholars helped to expand the collections. The museum moved in the present location, a XVII building decorated with frescoes, in 1932. After having been closed for many years, it reopened to the public in 2018. Unfortunately the whole invertebrate collection (more than 45.000 fossils) has been stored due to the building restoration. That's why only the plant and vertebrate collections can be visited, but nevertheless it is not short of surprises and amanzing specimens!! In this post I'll show you only the plant section. It is housed in a single large room and specimens are displayed like the XIX c. collections, but with modern equipment. It does nothing but enhance the astonishment. Padua is located 35 km west of Venice and 55 east of the Pesciara di Bolca, that is undoubtedly the most famous Italian palaeontological site (you can see specimens in the New york and Washington D.C. museums for example). it dates to the early Eocene and has yielded exceptionally well-preserved fishes, palm fruits and terrestrial and acquatic leafs. Most people don't know that around Bolca there are other important lagerstatten sites, with a similar age, that have yielded very different assemblages. For example in the Purga di Bolca, complete or isolated palm trunks and leafs have been found, as well as crocodiles and turtles. In the nearby province of Vicenza, an Oligocene outcrop preserves even more spectacular palm trees! I would have liked to explain in more detail the history of research in this areas and a description of flora and ancient environment, but it would take too long. If you are interested, I suggest you to read the most comprehensive and up-to-date work about the Bolca lagerstatten. You can download it for free from many sources. "CARNEVALE, G., et al. The Bolca Fossil-Lagerstätten: A Window into the Eocene World. 2014." Back, to Pauda, in the center of the room, plant specimens dating from the Carboniferous to the Pleistocene age and coming from all over Italy and other countries are exhibited. Now it's finaly time for the pictures!!! Let's start with two complete views of the room! It's impressive, isn't it? In the first case that I show you, you can see a wide range of plants from the Pesciara of Bolca, another outcrop near Bolca and from the province of Viceza: conifers, angiosperms, indeterminate specimens and horsetails. The close-up images are those of two conifers and of a horsetail. Next an undetermined plant showing inflorescences. In the Pesciara di Bolca, spectacular palm fruits can be found, some of them more than 30 cm (12 inch) long!! And now the amazing and almost breath-taking palm fronds! There are so many that you cannot take pictures of all of them, it would take so long!! Found from both in the Verona and Vicenza province, they show different stages of the growth of palms and and come from different parts of the plant. Of all of the aforementioned palm fronds, one stands out above all. It is actually a whole palm tree, 3 m (10 ft) tall. Definetely one of the most amazing fossil specimen that I've seen in any museum of the world. It belongs to the species "Latanites maximiliani" and was found in the Chiavon valley, Vicenza province. The next picture shows me (1,8 m or 5'9" tall) for size comparison. In the next post I'll explain to you the other plant exhibit. But first, enjoy this part!!