Dinosaur Antonio – Trieste

The real bones of the dinosaur “Antonio” are on display at the Civic Museum of Natural History. Take bus number 5 or 18 to get there.

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Antonio Dinosaur Paleontological Site

However, if you are traveling by car, we strongly recommend visiting the actual site where Antonia the Dinosaur was found. Opening hours only on Sundays from 16:30 to 20:30.

Address: Località Villaggio del pescatore, Duino
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Dinosaur Antonio

The paleontological site of the Villaggio del Pescatore (Duino-Aurisina, Trieste) is famous because it is the only dinosaur site in Italy. Discovered over 30 years ago by Mr. and Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Rimoli, he has a history of hectic studies, several excavation campaigns, preparation of finds, exhibitions. Relevant was the role of the Civic Museum of Natural History of Trieste which, with the Superintendence and University of Trieste, has worked over time to extract, study and enhance the important fossils discovered and the site itself.
In the fossil deposit, despite its small size (preparing an area of about 20 by 70 meters) dinosaurs and crocodiles were found particularly well preserved, along with fish, shrimp and vegetable.

A dinosaur, the most important and most famous, was nicknamed Antonio but its scientific name is Tethyshadros insularis Dalla Vecchia, 2009 (From the Old is the scholar who gave the name to the find in 2009). The exceptional nature of its discovery consists of having been found whole (it is one of the most complete dinosaurs in the world!) and with bones still in physiological connection. In addition, Antonio is the first Italian dinosaur found in a stratigraphic position, important to know the environment in which he lived, the age of the fossil, the geological history of the deposit. A second dinosaur, called Bruno, belonging to Antonio’s own species, was prepared in 2019. Bruno is exceptional because he is the only dinosaur in the world to be on a rock fold, which curves its skeleton 180 degrees.
The Antonio and Bruno dinosaurs are exhibited in the paleontology rooms of the Civic Museum of Natural History of Trieste.

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History of the research – The discovery

The dinosaur site of the Fisherman’s Village was discovered in the late 1980s by two lovers of mineralogy and paleontology, Giorgio Rimoli and Alceo Tarlao. While they were beating the area of the Fisherman’s Village looking for molybdenum lacquers, a rare mineral on the Karst, found some fossilized bones hidden by vegetation and covered by the mosses. The first samples, examined in section by the two experts and compared with images of a publication, turned out to be fossil bones of herbivorous dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, in the newspaper of Trieste, “Il Piccolo”, of December 11, 1990, appears an article that caused a sensation: “A dinosaur on the Karst. The fossil remains discovered in the limestones on the slopes of Mount Hermada. The two discoverers could no longer wait and went to the Civic Museum of Natural History of Trieste to report the discovery to the then director, dr. Sergio Dolce, and to deliver the few fossil remains they had collected. Today, looking back those years, Mr. Tarlao recalls: “At the exit of the article, I was very angry with Rimoli because I thought he had spoken to journalists. But Rimoli was angry with me, too, because he thought so. In fact, neither of them said anything, the news had come out without our knowledge. And probably, without that article, that made us run to the Museum by Dr. Sweet, who knows how long it would have been before we had told of our discovery. They were years when no one seemed to be interested in dinosaurs.

The film Jurassik Park (which will be released in 1993) was not yet released. The doctor. Dolce, however, immediately realized the importance of the discovery and already in December required the protection of the site and the temporary deposit of the finds and, in April 1991, prepared the first application for the granting of paleontological research and excavation to the competent Superintendence, which was entrusted for the following year. On October 17, 1992, the first paleontological excavation campaign began on the site of the Fisherman’s Village, the Civic Museum of Natural History of Trieste as an excavation dealership, dr. Ruggero Calligaris as director of excavation.

In those years it was not thought that we could find dinosaur skeletal remains in Italy and even less on the Karso. It was an absolute novelty, and for this reason the first excavations were immediately followed by an exhibition, inaugurated in 1993, “95 million years ago”, where the museum had the opportunity to present for the first time the dinosaur fossils of the Karso. Some of those finds can still be admired today in the hall of the museum, as well as the front dinosaur legs, among the first finds excavated in 1992 (of this dinosaur, called “Primus”, it was not found otherwise).

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The discovery of “Antonio”

On April 25, 1994, Tiziana Brazzatti, then a student of geology, sent by the University of Trieste to study the area, discovered the forelimbs of “Antonio”, the dinosaur that will become famous for being one of the most complete and best preserved dinosaurs in the world. In 1995 the fossil of the legs was recovered and, in this operation, the specialized technicians of the Stonege company realize that the find is found to find continuity in depth.

That is, the bones continued in the layer inside the rock. We also definitely realize that we are in front of the first dinosaur field in Italy. The potential of the site directly involves the Ministry, which in 1996-97 finances a new excavation campaign, coordinated by a mixed team given by experts from the Superintendence, the University and the Museum of Trieste. Excavation director, Dr. Sergio Dolce. The research concerns the area of the site upstream of the extraction point of the paw of “Antonio”. Further bone finds of dinosaur and crocodile are recovered. From this experimental excavation the nature of some of the dinosaurs (defined then “primitive adrosa”) emerges more clearly, the presence of a rich associated fauna and the real consistency and potential of the deposit. On August 3, 1998, an Agreement was made between the Archaeological Superintendence, Department of Geological Sciences, Environmental and Marine of the University of Trieste and Museum for “the modalities for the realization of the recovery and study of the fossil remains to be identified by mutual agreement”. The department is entrusted with the task of scientific coordination for paleoenvironmental research in the area of the Fisherman’s Village, the Museum the coordination of scientific dissemination and enhancement of the finds and a Geologist specialized in paleontology the direction of the works.

The excavation campaign to recover the dinosaur “Antonio”

In 1998-99 a new excavation campaign was undertaken, financed by the Ministry, more in-depth and aimed at recovering the remaining part of the skeleton of the dinosaur “Antonio”. Scientific Director: the geologist Dr. Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia; directors: Dr. Serena Vitri and arch. Alvaro Colonna of the Superintendence; specialized technicians for the recovery: Stoneage company of Trieste. Excavation at the Fisherman’s Village is not easy. To extract the dinosaur, over 300 cubic meters of rock are removed in a single solution, with the same technique used in the “marble” quarries of the Karst, which consists in “saffecting” the block rock using the aid of diamond wire. In this way you get the largest cava plan obtained from a single cut made on the Karst. The excavation front obtained allows you to get to the verticalized layer where, inside the rock, there is still the dinosaur “Antonio”, the main object of the works. Then the block containing the skeleton is extracted, trying to keep it as complete as possible and with the least damage to the bones.

During the excavation, another dinosaur (“Bruno”), a partial crocodile skeleton, numerous scattered bones, plants, shrimp and fish, emerged. Another primacy of the site: the excavation to remove Antonio was probably the first paleontological excavation made using quarry techniques. The block with Antonio, once mined, is taken to the quarry to cut it. Because it weighed several tons, it was impossible to prepare the dinosaur as it was, but it was necessary to reduce the weight of the rock and the thickness of the limestone matrix and then proceed, in the laboratory, to the chemical preparation of the find by the use of 5% diluted acid. The acid was sprayed with a particular continuous jet system. As soon as the rocky matrix melted and the fossil emerged, it was rinsed with water and impregnated with a very liquid vinyl glue, whose function was to infiltrate all the small cavities formed by the action of the acid, going to impregnate the fossil, strengthening it. “Antonio” was the first acid-prepared dinosaur. Meanwhile, the Museum organizes a new exhibition: “Hadrosaurs, adrosaurs and other fossil finds of the Fisherman’s Village near Trieste”, open from 23 December 1999 to 29 February 2000 at the Civico Acquario Marino in Trieste, with the aim of making known the finds found in the various excavation campaigns and to underline the collaboration between the institutions and other realities involved.

Source: www.museostorianaturaletrieste.it