Reptiles from the Monte San Giorgio in the Palaeontological Museum of Zurich - part 2

deutschsprachig Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar. Jetzt zur deutschsprachigen Version wechseln.

 

After the palaeontological excursion to the Monte San Giorgio excavation site, that took place last summer, I was curious to see the great marine reptiles and the other fossils found since 1950 in the surrounding of Meride. Several of them, already described in the excursion report (but without any pictures) are exhibited in the Palaeontological Museum of Zurich, inside of the University building. Here you can see wonderful remains of smaller and bigger inhabitants of a Triassic sea and finally see for the very first time what we talked about just with words. This visit is strongly recommended also because in pictures you can’t realize how big they are, especially the Tanystropheus.
The Palaeontological Museum of Zurich exhibits a good number of rare fossil specimens coming from the fossiliferous sites of Monte San Giorgio, especially the ones found during the excavation campaign done by the University of Zurich occurring at the Punta 902 site between 1950 and 1968.

 

P1150892 map
Map of the Monte San Giorgio area at the Italy/Switzerland border.

 

P1150893
This is the first Ichthyosaur paddle that Peyer found in 1919 in the Tre Fontane area.

 

The following pictures show Neusticosaurus, Ceresiosaurus and other finds from the Acqua del Ghiffo site. Peyer started to dig here in 1927. The University of Zurich continued the research in 1984.

 

P1150896

P1150899

P1150900

P1150901

P1150902

P1150916 neusticosaurus peyeri-acqua del ghiffo

P1150905

P1150908

P1150912

P1150913

P1150914

P1150917

 

 

P1150955
Mixosaurus from Punta 902.

 

P1150918

Nothosaurus

 

P1150981

Saurichthys


In the following pictures the Giraffosaur called Tanystropheus longobardicus, more than 4 meters in length, found in 1933 by Peyer at the Tre Fontane site.

 

P1150963

P1150964

P1150965

P1150971

P1150969

P1150970

 

 

P1150973

P1150975
Macrocnemus bassanii from Cata Tre Fontane. This is a copy. The original is shown at the Museum of Meride.

 

 

P1150982

P1150986

P1150987

P1150993

Saurichthys and fish from Cassina.

 

P1150994

Ctenognathichthys bellottii

 
The last pictures show the Paranothosaurus amsleri found by Peyer in 1924 at Tre Fontane.

 

P1160005

P1150929

P1150930

 

Luca Jaselli

 

Website of the museum: http://www.pim.uzh.ch/museum/