Reptiles from the Monte San Giorgio in the Palaeontological Museum of Zurich - part 2
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- Kategorie: English articles
- Veröffentlicht: Samstag, 12. Januar 2013 18:44
- Geschrieben von Luca Jaselli
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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.
Map of the Monte San Giorgio area at the Italy/Switzerland border.
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.
Mixosaurus from Punta 902.
Nothosaurus
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.
Macrocnemus bassanii from Cata Tre Fontane. This is a copy. The original is shown at the Museum of Meride.
Saurichthys and fish from Cassina.
Ctenognathichthys bellottii
The last pictures show the Paranothosaurus amsleri found by Peyer in 1924 at Tre Fontane.
Luca Jaselli
Website of the museum: http://www.pim.uzh.ch/museum/
