Natural History Museum CollectionsGeology and PaleontologyPaleo-botanical collections

Paleo-botanical collections

 

The paleobotanical collection includes about 8,000 finds that document the evolution of the plant world.

More than a thousand specimens come from the area of the present Pisan Mountains, which constituted a continental area with an intertropical hot-humid climate, with extensive rain forests. About 300 million years have passed and large arboreal forms such as ferns (Pteridophyta) are also preserved in the rich Paleozoic flora. Other remains of Paleozoic plants come from central-eastern Sardinia and the western alpine area. The finds of fossil plants from the Carboniferous come mostly from Germany and from areas exploited as mines since the nineteenth century.

The Mesozoic and Cenozoic flora are represented with finds from classical English, French or even Tuscan places, among others. Of particular importance are the remains of the Vicenza area (especially the oligocene flora of Chiavon), as they are coming from a region that constituted a "Caribbean" marine environment affected by volcanic events.

Heads of collections Stefano Dominici | Luca Bellucci

Read more on the paleo-botanical collections (English text at the bottom of the pages)
Cioppi, E., The fossil plant collection, in: Monechi, S. and Rook, L. (eds), 2010, The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence: The geological and paleontological collections, Firenze University Press (pp. 265-285).