On May 10, a new room in Florence’s natural history museum will feature recently unearthed finds from Orciano Pisano, a small town in the Pisan hills.
To be called the “Whale Room,” the permanent exhibit will show, along with evidence of ancient marine life in the area, including a dolphin’s skull, a whale’s ear bones, fossils from fish, sea birds and various invertebrates, the 10-metre skeleton of a Pliocene whale, discovered in an Orciano Pisano field in 2007.
Architect Lorenzo Greppi, who designed the new ground-floor exhibition space, said that he strove for the contemporary while being respectful of the museum’s past. Projections and sound effects will allow visitors to experience Tuscany’s marine environment of three million years ago.
Manager of the museum’s geology and palaeontology department, Stefano Dominici, commented, “It will be like walking on the seabed at 100–200 metres deep.”
For more information, see the museum’s Facebook page Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze.
