50,000,000 years ago

1. The magnificent shark from 50,000,000 years ago. The rarity of this find lies in the fact that the skin has also fossilized, thus tracing the complete profile of the shark.

Today is Easter Monday and it’s raining, no picnic, but Cri and I still know how to make the most of the weather. After having eaten magnificently at Laita in Crespadoro, we head to a place that in Cri recalls a childhood trip in search of fossils in Bolca. We are on the hilly road that leads from the province of Vicenza to the province of Verona passing through the village of Bolca, a unique place in the world, so much so that it is a candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2. An angelfish. Note the two pages that make up the fossil. These gems are obtained from a single slab of stone, opening it in the center with the chisel and with extreme skill. I imagine the heart of those who are preparing to open a similar book with the hope of finding a surprise like this inside, almost as if it were a wonderful Easter egg.

We arrive in Bolca, a small hamlet in the municipality of Vestananova, and one might say: who has ever heard the name of this municipality? In the world, in fact, only Bolca is known with Pesciara and its small museum which contains jewels dating back 50 million years.

3. A notable thing is the colors of some fossils, but what makes the most impression is that most of the fossils have their mouths open, as if in a last attempt to breathe oxygen which instead has been completely absorbed by the toxic fumes caused by the algae marine.

At that time here there was a tropical sea with its lagoon and due to completely natural phenomena, such as the exhalations of the lava from a volcano that descended into the sea, or much more probably, and this is also the most current thought, the fumes of rotting algae which completely removed oxygen from the lagoon, caused notable deaths of fish which settled on the seabed. Over the millennia, other deaths occurred and other dead fish settled on the seabed. They were covered by sandy sediments and other decompositions, and over millions of years all this petrified.

4. Near Pesciara, on Monte Postale, where the Cerato family mined lignite, interesting fossils of crocodiles and plants were found, even entire trees still with leaves. Please note that the background color is black, it was charcoal!. It is difficult to imagine how many of these fossils were burned in the stoves of poor farmers in the past years, who knows what they would have thought that today that coal is worth gold.

The first discoveries of these fossils were made in the 1500s by miners extracting coal and other minerals. The sites are still owned by a family who continue the mining tradition of their ancestors, but with very different purposes. The first interpretations on fossils and the causes of their formation were rather varied and imaginative and certainly not scientific. The greatest discoveries have always been made on the top of a hill, so much so that, due to the quantity of finds, it was renamed Pesciara, practically a stone aquarium where fish are caught with a hammer and chisel. But you have to be extremely delicate with these tools, nature has created a grandiose stone book to leaf through in the cracks of the rocks. Once a slab has been identified and detached from the rock, it must be opened, with light and skillful touches of the chisel, to ensure that the two pages of this book open and reveal the beauty of the two faces of the fossil. You can understand all this by looking at the photos.

5. Complete trees fossilized within the Monte Postale lignite

There are many museums in the world that exhibit fossils from Bolca, as well as in Verona, Vienna, Paris, London, Pittsburgh and many others.

6. Swordfish

For foreign friends: when you go to visit Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, (I remind you, however, that this too is a legend and that the real castles of Romeo and Juliet are located in Montecchio Maggiore, in the province of Vicenza and that the Juliet’s balcony in Verona is just an invention and that Shakespeare took his tragedy from a libretto by Luigi Da Porto from Vicenza, (crazy parochialism :)), also go and visit this museum which tells the story of 50 million years ago . It will be like you enter a library, and there you will find the stone pages of this fantastic book open.

7. Fish family Labridae

*What do you think dear friends? @TravellerG @AdamGT @renata1 @Stephanie_OWL @PattyBlack @helga19 *

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Wow…

Amazing… amazing… my dearest friend @plavarda ,

I lack words to express my feelings…

Fossils - almost living, even after 50,000,000 years!!!

Your photos are awesome treat for our eyes!

Next to unbelievable!!!

Fossils with skin is new information, because I learnt that the skin is perishable!

Trees with leaves, again…how did they know that much a huge fossils is behind the stone? Mesmerizing Skills!!

Thanks for the special NOTE for foreign readers… Romeo and Juliet & your comments.

This post is really unique…

Thanks for sharing these wonderful details, dear…

Worth the attention of the Community!

@DeniGu @TusharSuradkar @AjitThite @Shrut19 @Praniketmore @ShubhamWaman @RaviSharma111 @Shubhu1 @PrasadVR

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Oh ich danke dir @plavarda , dass du mich markiert hast!!! :heart:

Bereits als Kind spielte ich mehr mit Autos und Dinosauriern als mit Puppen, ich kannte mehr gängige Automobile, vor allem von Mercedes, als alle meine Mitschüler… :rofl:

Besonders faszinierend fand ich jedoch all die Namen der Dinosaurier, die ich auswendig lernte.

In Barkhausen, nicht so weit weg, gibt es Dinosaurierspuren die versteinert sind. Auch nahe Hannover, in Loccum.

Es ist so unglaublich wie riesig diese Giganten gewesen sein müssen, die Fußabdrücke von 1,20m hinterlassen haben.

Fossilien… Alles was anzuschauen und zu begreifen ist, mag dem Menschen eine genauere Vorstellung geben. Alles andere erscheint ihm als Fiction.

Im Garten unseres Hauses haben wir bei Gartenarbeiten im Lehmboden ein winziges Fossil gefunden, ich will versuchen es zu fotografieren, jedoch herrscht gerade wieder einmal Dauerregen.

Dein Bericht lieber Paolo hat mich richtig glücklich gemacht, deine Fotos sind phänomenal und die Fossilien so perfekt und detailliert erhalten, danke, dass du uns diese Schätze gezeigt hast!!!

Und ein weiteres Danke… Ich stand bereits unter besagtem Balkon :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: ach, hätte ich DIESE Information nur bereits zuvor besessen… :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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@plavarda

Eine besondere Darstellung und Erzählung dieser versteinerten Objekte.

Die Bilder dazu sind wunderschön

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Dearest @TravellerG @Stephanie_OWL @Annaelisa Thank you for your much appreciated and very friendly comments. I had already written about William Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet on this other post of mine on the castles of Montecchio Maggiore Did Juliette and Romeo-lived-here/? . Then there is an important thing to remember about Juliet’s balcony, it is a grandiose invention of the director of the Civic Museums of Verona from 1915 to 1955, Dr. Avena who reused a fourteenth-century Scaliger sarcophagus in the museum’s deposits to create a balcony in Gothic style and make people believe that this was the house of the Capulets and not an ancient inn in the center of Verona. Here is the real story and you can also check it on Wikipedia. A big hug from Italy.

Paolo

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It is unlike any other museum @plavarda .
That “the pages of stones” are striking and excellent.

Thanks for sharing such an amazing post.

Thank you @TravellerG sir for tagging in post.

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@plavarda Thank you for taking time to share your wonderful experience at Bolca, photos of fossils dated back to 50,000,000 years and its history. Your post content is very impressive and interesting. Thank you @TravellerG for tagging me.

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Thank you dear @PrasadVR @ShubhamWaman

A hug from Italy

Paolo

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@plavarda

Fascinating fossils and a wonderfully descriptive article and photos.

I wonder how the paleontologist with the delicate chisel knew there was something inside the rock before splitting it to exactly reveal the two halves of the angelfish :thinking:

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Dearest @MattGatlin Yours is an excellent question, but surely the experience of 300 years of fossil extraction carried out by this family must be remarkable. From the information received during the visit to the museum, well over 100,000 fish were extracted from the Pesciara cave alone. Inside the cave the landscape that appears is actually many stone blocks that look like books on a horizontal and not vertical shelf and for this reason it comes to mind that the pages must be opened, but in reality you need to have the right technique and a lot of experience. The animal and plant species found are more than 350 and many do not yet have a name. It is thought that the existing deposits will allow discoveries for another 1,000 years, unless someone thinks of mechanically accelerating them… all forms of poetry and magic would be lost! A hug from Italy

Paolo

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@plavarda Thanks for the elaboration. I suppose if you’re that prolific, you learn to know what to look for in a slab of sedimentary rock!

Thanks again,

Matt

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Diese beiden Versteigerungen fanden sich bei Bau unseres Hauses im Lehmboden @plavarda

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@Stephanie_OWL direi che fa parte della storia della casa e va conservata o forse ancora meglio inserite nel muro della casa, magari sul muro dell’ ingresso , sarebbe una bella testimonianza per i posteri!

Un forte abbraccio

Paolo

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Namaskar,

** @plavarda **

Thank you for wonderful Information & Post, all photos clearly proof of fossilized, thanks for sharing…

@TravellerG Thanks for tagged worth post…

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Amazing! @plavarda Sir!

Have studied a lot about fossils and your pictures revived the fossils knowledge.

Clear and clarity driven pictures. A delight to curious eyes!

Thank you for sharing with us oldest fossils as it keeps the knowledge going!

Always Regards Sir!

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Such a beautiful piece, @plavarda , and really intriguing g and historic fossil images are quite spectacular. I like that a skin has also fosilized .

Thank you, @TravellerG sir, for tagging me in such historic and informative post

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Dearest @Praniketmore @AnubhaBangia @Shrut19 Thank you very much for your kind words and I am happy that the post inspired you. I want to thank my dear friend @TravellerG @ who is always so thoughtful towards me. A big hug to everyone from Italy

Paolo

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Extremely valuable NOTES, my dear friend, @plavarda

Also visited your 2021 post of Romeo… Romeo… :+1: :+1: :+1:

Thank you very much for your regards, dear friend…

:handshake: :rose: :pray:

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Hello, team member @ShubhamWaman

Happy that you enjoyed the valuable post by our @plavarda

Great photographer and an author of award winning Books…

Regards with thanks for your prompt response.

:handshake: :rose: :+1:

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You are welcome, dear @PrasadVR ,

As you TAG me for nice posts, I too remember to tag you…

Most welcome…

:pray:

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