The King of Italian Paleontology
A Portrait of Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia
By Steve Brusatte
Europe
is considered the birthplace
of paleontology. It was on this continent that the first dinosaur was
named, the idea of extinction was
formulated, and several of
paleontology's early heroes lived
and worked. Georges Cuvier,
William Buckland, Richard Owen,
and Gideon Mantell all hailed from
Europe, as did Nopcsa, Stromer,
and Piveteau.
However, when one thinks of European paleontology, the countries of
England, France, and Germany immediately come to mind. Lost in all of
this history is Italy, a country with a vast and diverse fossil record.
One of the most prominent modern paleontologists is Fabio Marco Dalla
Vecchia.
Dalla Vecchia first became interested in paleontology at the age of six,
although dinosaurs were not his favorite as a child. Instead, young
Fabio became interested in Silurian and Devonian fishes and trilobites,
Permian amphibians and reptiles, and Eocene mammals. In fact, dinosaurs
were about the only thing he was not interested in! However, this would
soon change.
As he grew older, Dalla Vecchia began to enjoy dinosaur movies, and at
the age of eight watched a movie that would change his life. After
watching this movie Dalla Vecchia began to read books on dinosaurs, and
eventually developed quite an interest in the terrible lizards.
But, when Dalla Vecchia was a child, dinosaurs were unknown from Italy,
and the rocks near Fabio's home were not of the right age to preserve
dinosaurs. Instead, he enjoyed collecting Miocene shells, while still
continuing to read about dinosaurs. Unbeknownst to Dalla Vecchia, the
first large dinosaur track site discovered in Italy, and one of the
first records of dinosaurs in the country, was discovered later in 1990,
some 45 kilometers from where Fabio lived the first nine years of his
life.
Dalla Vecchia's life took a dramatic turn when he was 12, in 1976. In
this year a large earthquake destroyed the area where Dalla Vecchia
lived, killing over 1,000 people. Although this earth quake was a terror
for the residents of his hometown, the tremor pushed Fabio towards a
career in geology.
A later visit to the British Museum of Natural History in London in 1981
persuaded him to pursue a career in paleontology. However, when he
entered the University of Bologna two years later, Fabio settled for
geology, as paleontology was not offered, but continued his interest and
readings in fossils.
Nearing graduation, Dalla Vecchia was uncertain about his future, and
was torn between specializing in biostratigraphy a career with a better
chance of employment, or pure paleontology, a career with virtually no
prospect of finding a job.
In the autumn of 1982 an unexpected discovery changed Dalla Vecchia's
life, and pushed him towards paleontology. This discovery, the holotype
of the
Triassic pterosaur Preondactylus, intrigued Dalla Vecchia, and
persuaded him to write his dissertation on the sedimentology,
stratigraphy, and paleontology of the formation in which the pterosaur
was collected.
While conducting fieldwork related to the dissertation, Dalla Vecchia
discovered a ball-like assemblage of crushed pterosaur bones that turned
out to be a fossilized gastric eject. This find only intrigued him more,
and after graduation Dalla Vecchia decided to pursue a Ph.D. on Triassic
pterosaurs.
Dalla Vecchia's work on pterosaurs was well-received by the
paleontological community, and resulted in several new discoveries and
papers. What makes his work interesting is that the oldest known
pterosaurs are found in Italy, and although they are quite old, these
Italian pterosaurs are not transitional specimens. They are full,
complete pterosaurs, specimens which have given new insights into the
study of pterosaur origins.
Although the species, which are primarily known from the Alps of
Northern Italy vary, most specimens have shorter wings than later forms.
Despite these short wings, Dalla Vecchia believes the Italian pterosaurs
to have been adept fliers, capable of gliding over open water to catch
fish. One of these pterosaurs, Eudimorphodon, was unearthed near
Bergamo, Italy in 1973.
Currently housed in the Civic Museum of Natural Science in Bergamo, this
5-million-year-old specimen is unique in that several fish scales are
preserved in its abdominal region, direct proof that this species ate
fish. Dalla Vecchia's cohort, German paleontologist Rupert Wild,
believes that Eudimorphodon caught its prey much like brown pelicans do
today dive bombing under the water to grab the fish.
While pterosaurs provided Dalla Vecchia with plenty to study, he still
longed to discover dinosaurs, the creatures which had jumped into his
heart as a child.
His dream became a reality in 1993, when volunteers from the Museum of
Monfalcone, about 50 kilometers from Dalla Vecchia's home, showed him a
vertebra collected from the Lower Cretaceous rocks of Istria.
It was discovered near the town of Valle/Bale, less than 100 kilometers
southeast of Monfalcone. Upon looking at the specimen, Dalla Vecchia recognized
it as a caudal centrum of a dinosaur, and it came from less than 150 kilometers
from his home!
As it turned out, more bones had been collected by amateur Dario Boscarolli who
discovered the site in the 1990's, and were the subject of a preliminary
publication, which was already submitted to Natura Nascosta, the
Bulletin of the Museum. Dalla Vecchia obtained access to the specimens, which he
began to study in detail. Among the specimens he recognized a crushed but
complete cervical vertebra and many other sauropod bones. He then published a
description of the most important specimens, including a nearly complete
posterior dorsal vertebra, which is the holotype of the sauropod
Histriasaurus boscarolli. Unfortunately, the cervical vertebra was later
seriously damaged when sent back to the authorities of Valle/ Bale. The holotype
is currently part of a traveling exhibit, which is touring Italy and nearby
countries.
Regardless, the Monfalcone specimens pushed Dalla Vecchia to complete a post-doc
on the dinosaurs of the Adriatic region, mainly Istria, a peninsula that
now mostly belongs to the new Republic of Croatia. His study also received Dalla
Vecchia the position of curator of the Museum of Monfalcone, and enabled him to
obtain a grant from the Dinosaur Society in 1995 to continue fieldwork and
study. Later, in 1998, Dalla Vecchia was hired by the Ministry of Cultural and
Environmental Goods to direct field work in the Villaggio del Pescatore site,
and to do a preliminary study of the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs and crocodiles
found there.
While conducting fieldwork in the Villaggio del Pescatore, Dalla Vecchia's team
excavated the remains of a complete and well-preserved hadrosaur, now nicknamed
"Antonio," which had been discovered in 1994. Dalla Vecchia wrote a preliminary
report on Antonio, and to date has also authored seven papers on pterosaurs, 12
on dinosaurs, plus several others on other Mesozoic reptiles.
Of all his work, though, it has been the discovery of Antonio which has brought
Dalla Vecchia the most fame, and the most heartache. However, Dalla Vecchia
himself did not discover the specimen nor the site. Instead, that honor goes to
Alceo Tarlao and Giorgio Rimoli, two amateur paleontologists who came across the
Villaggio del Pescatore site in the 1980's. The specimen itself was found by
Tiziana Brazzatti, a student who began exploring the site between 1993 and 1994.
She found the right manus, mostly weathered away, which was exposed on a
limestone slab cropping out of a hillside. The slab was excavated by the Museum
of Natural History of Trieste, which gave the specimen to a private firm of
fossil dealers for preparation.
During preparation, the preparators discovered two articulate, complete
forelimbs on the slab of rock containing the manus. It was then clear that the
prosecution of the slab into the hill side contained a much more complete
skeleton. Dalla Vecchia asked to study the specimen, but the competent Italian
authorities told him to wait for an official decision.
Later, he asked for permission again, but never received a clear answer. In the
meantime, the private firm of fossil dealers was appointed by the Ministry to do
fieldwork at the site. They discovered a hadrosaur skull, complete but badly
crushed, together with some other bones from the same skeleton. In 1998 the
Ministry appropriated a sum of money to officially excavate the site and
indicated Dalla Vecchia as the scientific director of the fieldwork.
The goal of the fieldwork was to excavate the remaining part of Antonio. In
order to do this, a huge portion of the limestone hillside had to be removed
with mechanical tools. The specimen was finally extracted by the workers when
Dalla Vecchia was absent from the site, due to his attending a symposium. The
skeleton was partially damaged during excavation and some portions were
subsequently reconstructed in resin.
Regardless, some 95 percent of Antonio is preserved (although some may actually
be resin), which may give new insights into the osteology of European hadrosaurs
if the specimen is ever properly studied. However, because no study has been
conducted, the proper taxonomic position of the specimen is unknown.
Dalla Vecchia believes that it belongs to Hadrosauridae sensu Weishampel
et al. (1993). After his preliminary study done under Ministry appointment and
after the complete preparation of the specimen by acids, he does believe it to
be a new taxon in strict relation with Telmatosaurus, which he would
like to name Timavia adriatica (after the subterranean Timavo River and
the Adriatic Sea). But, this will remain impossible because the specimen will
only be studied by other paleontologists recently indicated by the Ministry.
Dalla Vecchia does know that the specimen is about 85 million years old
(Santonian age of the Cretaceous), quite older than all other European
hadrosaurs, which are Maastrichtian in age. Dalla Vecchia is also
interested in sauropods, a group of dinosaurs he has been intrigued by
since his chance study of the sauropod vertebra in 1993. Much of this
work deals with the adaptations of sauropods to insular environments, a
study which has been the topic of several of his papers. According to
these papers, Adriatic dinosaurs in the Albian and Cenomanian were
unusually small, half the linear size of sauropods coexisting in Texas.
Dalla Vecchia believes that the cause of this size difference is due to the fact
that the Adriatic-Dinaric carbonate platform, the home of these small dinosaurs,
became isolated because of tectonic and eustatic reasons during the Early
Cretaceous. This isolation led to the small size of these sauropods, in analogy
with the phenomenon of island dwarfism affecting Cenozoic mammals. Also the
small size of Antonio, which is about 4-4.5 meters in length, smaller than most
other hadrosaurs was due to insularity.
Footprint Trento Museum
Dalla Vecchia has also conducted other paleobiogeographical studies. One of
these studies revolves around the hypothesis that regions of south ern Italy
were joined with northern Africa during parts of the Early Cretaceous.
Originally, based on geological and fossil evidence, paleontologists believed
Italy to have been an archipelago of very small islands, much like Hawaii today,
or even completely covered by a shallow sea, during the Cretaceous. However, the
research team led by geologist Alfonso Bosellini, on which Dalla Vecchia is the
only vertebrate paleontologist, does not agree with this hypothesis, and have
formulated their own theory to account for Italy's Cretaceous position.
This hypothesis, based on footprint evidence discovered near San Giovanni
Rotondo in southern Italy, states that the Puglia area of southern Italy was
joined, by emergent land, with Africa during at least the first 30 million years
of the Cretaceous. This makes sense, as Italy is technically part of the African
plate, and only recently, geologically speaking, collided with Europe to
"become" part of the continent. This collision created the Alps, a mountain
range which is still growing and will continue to do so for some time.
Along with studying the San Giovanni Rotondo footprint site, Dalla Vecchia also
has studied the footprints of sauropods at other sites. Results of these studies
were published in 1994 and 1998. In his 1994 paper, Dalla Vecchia mentioned the
discovery of a primitive sauropod, represented by footprints, discovered in the
lower Jurassic of Trentino (Northern Italy).
A different footprint, likely late Hauterivian in age, was found in Friuli
(Northeastern Italy), and could possibly belong to a brachiosaurid or more
primitive sauropod. Other footprints, discovered in late Albian sediments in
Istria, belong to a new ichnotaxon, Titanosaurimanus nana, named by
Dalla Vecchia and Tarlao in a 2000 paper. These footprints likely represent a
dwarf titanosaur.
Dalla Vecchia has also published several recent papers on non-dinosaur
vertebrates of Italy, including ichthyosaurs, placodonts, nothosaurs,
tanystropheids, and mammals. Some of the most intriguing of these finds are a
cache of Late Triassic ichthyosaur bones, while Late Triassic placodonts and
nothosaurs are common in Friuli. Recently, Cretaceous turtles have been reported
from the Vicenza province of the Veneto region, although nobody is studying
them. In a 2000 paper Dalla Vecchia briefly discussed other vertebrates known
from Italy, including rare Early Triassic fishes from the Dolomites,
temnospondylian amphibians from the Alto Adige/Sud Tirol region, Triassic
arboreal reptiles found in Lombardy and Friuli, Triassic coastal reptiles from
Trentino and Friuli, and ichthyosaurs from the famous Ammonitico Rosso rock unit
in the Veneto region.
However, many of these fossils are unknown to researchers outside of Italy.
As Dalla Vecchia put it, "I think that outside Italy this richness of
vertebrates in Northern Italy is decidedly misunderstood."
However, in recent years, the vertebrates of Italy have become known to the
outside world largely because of the efforts of Dalla Vecchia. And, as he is not
yet in his 40's, Dalla Vecchia should continue his research into the indefinite
future. Molto bene!
References:
- BRUSATTE, S.L., 2000, Lungamente
Vive Il Dinosaurio In Italia: Fossil News - The Journal of Amateur
Paleontology, February 2000, Volume 6, Number 2: Pages 4-9.
- BRUSATTE, S.L., 2001, An Interview
with Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia, Dino saur World, Number 10.
- DALLA VECCHIA, F.M., 1994, Jurassic
and Cretaceous sauropod evidence in the Mesozoic carbonate platforms
of the Southern Alps and Dinarids. In Lockley, M. G, dos Santos, V.
F., Meyer, C. A. & Hunt, A. (eds.), Aspects of Sauropod
Paleobiology: Gaia, (1994): 65-73.
- -, 1997a, Terrestrial tetrapod evi
dence on the Norian (Late Triassic) and Cretaceous carbonate
platforms of Northern Adriatic region (Italy, Slovenia and Croatia).
In Jianu, C. (ed.), First Int. Symp. "Mesozoic Ver tebrate Faunas of
Central Europe", Proceedings: Sargetia, ser. Sci. Nat., XVII:
177-201.
- -, 1998a, Remains of Sauropoda
(Reptilia, Saurischia) in the Lower Cre taceous Upper
Hauterivian/Lower Barremian) limestones of SW Istria
(Croatia): Geologia Croatica, 51(2):105-134.
- -, 1998b, Theropod footprints in the
Cretaceous Adriatic-Dinaric carbonate platform (Italy and Croatia).
In Perez Moreno, B., Holtz, T., Sanz, J.L. & Moratallla, J.J.
(eds.), Aspects of Theropod Paleobiology: Gaia, 15: 355 3 6 7 .
- -, 1998c, New observations on the
osteology and taxonomic status of Preondactylus buffarinii Wild,
1984 (Reptilia, Pterosauria). Boll. Soc. Pal. It., 36(3, 1997):355
366, Modena.
- -, 1999a, A sauropod footprint in a
limestone block from the Lower Creta ceous of northeastern Italy:
Ichnos, 6(4): 269-275.
- -, 2000a, Mesozoic Vertebrates in
Italy: The State of the Art, Europal Newsletter of The European
Paleontological Association, 16 (Oc tober 2000): 40-44, Friburg.
- -, 2000b, A wing phalanx of a large
basal pterosaur (Diapsida, Pterosauria) from the Norian (Late
Triassic) of NE Italy. Boll. Soc. Paleont. It., 39(2): 229-234,
Modena.
- -, 2000c, Tanystropheus
(Archosauromorpha, Prolacertiformes) evidence from the Triassic of
the North ern Friuli (NE Italy). Riv. Ital. Paleont. Strat., 106(2):
135-140, Milano.
- -, 2001, A vertebra of a large
sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Istria
(Croatia). Natura Nascosta, 22: 14-33, Monfalcone.
- -, In Press, Terrestrial ecosystems
on the Mesozoic peri-adriatic carbonate platforms: the vertebrate
evidence. VII International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial
Ecosystems, Buenos Aires, September 26th-October 1st, Proceed i n g
s .
- -, & ARDUINI P. & KELLNER A.W.A.,
2001, The first pterosaur from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous)
Lagerstätten of Lebanon. Cretaceous Research, 22/2: 219-225.
- -, & MIETTO P., 1998 Impronte di
rettili terrestri nella Dolomia Principale (Triassico superiore)
delle Prealpi Carniche (Pordenone, Friuli). Atti Tic. Sc. Terra,
ser. spec. 7:87-107 Pavia.
- -, & RIEPPEL O., 2001 Marine Rep
tiles from the Triassic of the Tre Venezie, northeastern Italy. pp.
24, Fieldiana, Chicago.
- -, & RENESTO S., 2000, The unu sual
dentition and feeding habits of the Prolacertiform reptile
Langobardisaurus (Late Triassic, Northern Italy). Journ.Vert.
Paleont., 20(3): 622-627.
- & TARLAO A., 2000, Part II
Paleontology. In Dalla Vecchia, F.M., Tarlao, A., Tunis, G. &
Venturini, S., New dinosaur track sites in the Albian (Early
Cretaceous) of the Istrian pe ninsula (Croatia): Mem. Sci. Geol.
Padova, 52/2: 227-293.
- -, & TARLAO A., TUNIS G. & VENTURINI
S., 2001, Dinosaur track sites in the Upper Cenomanian (Late
Cretaceous) of the Istrian peninsula (Croatia).Boll. Soc. Paleont.
Ital., 40(1): 25-54, Modena.
- & VENTURINI, S., 1995, A theropod
(Reptilia, Dinosauria) footprint on a block of Cretaceous limestone
at the pier of Porto Corsini (Ravenna, Italy): Riv. Ital. Paleont.
Strat., 101(1): 93-98.
- GIANOLLA P., MORSILLI M.D., DALLA
VECCHIA F.M., BOSELLINI. A. & RUSSO A.
- , 2000, Impronte di dinosauri in
facies di piattaforma interna nel Cretaceo inferiore del Gargano
(Puglia, Italia meridionale). Riassunti delle comunicazioni orali e
dei posters 80° Riunione Estiva S.G.I., Trieste Sep tember 6-8th
2000, pp. 265-266, Trieste.
- WEISHAMPEL D.B., NORMAN D.B. and
GRIGORESCU D. (1993) Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus from the Late
Creta ceous of Romania: the most basal hadrosaurid dinosaur.
Paleontology, 36(2), 361-385.
Italian Peninsula was once joined to Africa
Short news item of DinoData (20001115)
Researchers from the University of Ferrara found sixty footprints in a remote
area of southern Italy, which they believe were made during the Early Cretaceous
by an iguanodon.
The footprints, some as long as 18 inches, were found in June in a cave near San
Giovanni Rotondo, in the southeastern region of Puglia.
According to this scientist the discovery suggests the Italian peninsula was
once joined to Africa. Until their discovery the conventional theory indicated
that what is now southern Italy was once an archipelago of tiny islands.
The head of the team professor Alfonso Bosellini, however, said large numbers of
dinosaurs of this size could not have existed on small islands and that the
footprints were comparable to others already discovered in North Africa.
Source:
- DinoData - The King of Italian
Paleontology - https://www.dinodata.net/DNM/2001/page32.pdf
Other Bibliographies:
- Dalla Vecchia bibliography -
https://www.dinodata.net/Refs/D/DallaVecchia.htm
- Boscarolli
D. & Dalla Vecchia, F.M. (1999) The Upper Hauterivian-Lower
Barremian dinosaur site of Bale/Valle (SW Istria, Croatia).
Natura Nascosta, 18:1-5, Monfalcone - from:
https://www.dinodata.net/Refs/B/BOSCAROLLI.htm
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