In collaboration with the University of Bari
In the territory of Matera, 800 thousand years ago, there was an archipelago of islands. This is the result of research conducted on the sedimentation found beneath the Giuliana Whale. The studies were presented during the national congress of the Italian Geological Society and the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology, currently taking place in Bari.
Maria Rosaria Senatore, a geologist specialized in stratigraphic geology and sedimentology, a professor at the University of Sannio in Campania, explained that “the research activity considered the sedimentation found beneath the fossil bones of the Giuliana Whale, the largest whale fossil ever described and likely the largest whale to have ever navigated the waters of the Mediterranean.”
Senatore clarified that “Giuliana is 26 meters long and weighs between 130 and 150 tons and was uncovered in 2006. The extraction and study required lengthy phases. Today the fossil remains are displayed at the museum in Matera. For the first time, however, we present the geological and paleontological studies that we have conducted. We geologists have reconstructed the natural environment at the time of the whale. We studied the stratigraphic succession, revealing the natural environment of 800,000 years ago.”
“By studying the stratigraphic succession, we can reconstruct – the researcher further stated – the natural environments over time and space. Below the bone remains of the Whale, we recovered sediment that we analyzed.
Analyzing this sediment, we have come to the conclusion that at that time, 800 thousand years ago, in that spot there was an archipelago of islands and the whale was on the edge of an island.” Agostino Meo from the University of Sannio reported that “a total of 60 samples were analyzed. The study is a multidisciplinary study because these samples were analyzed from a sedimentological, stratigraphic, and micropaleontological point of view, but another interesting aspect that helped clarify the natural environment well was the study of the pollen found within the sediments.”
In collaboration with the University of Bari