Until thirty years ago, no palaeontologists would have thought it possible to find traces of dinosaurs in the Dolomites. Now however, we know that the dinosaurs roamed far and wide, on the longest trails in Europe, among the rocks that would, in time, come to be called the Pale Mountains. The tracks left here by amphibians are the oldest in the whole of the Alps, and the fossils of the flying reptiles are the oldest in the world.
Ph. Geoparc Bletterbach
The Geological Heritage Network of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation is promoting the travelling exhibition entitled “DinoMITI, rettili fossili delle Dolomiti”, created with the help of the MUSE museum, the Natural History Museum of South Tyrol in Bolzano, the Friulian Natural History Museum in Udine, the three Regole d’Ampezzo museums in Cortina (BL), the Vittorino Cazzetta museum in Selva di Cadore (BL), and the Museum Gherdëina in Ortisei (BZ).
The exhibition is a voyage through the history of the Dolomite region told through the major fossil remains recovered there. Priceless exhibits and accurate reconstructions trace the evolving history of these reptiles from the first traces to the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Until merely a few decades ago, it was thought that the southern Alpine environments were unsuitable habitats for dinosaurs, but now we know that the land and sea of the area that would become the Dolomites were populated for millions of years by a huge variety of flying, terrestrial and marine reptiles.
The exhibition “DinoMITI, rettili fossili delle Dolomiti” has been open in Predazzo (TN) from June to October 2013, in Cortina d’Ampezzo (BL) from December 2013 to April 2014, in Selva di Cadore (BL) from June to September 2014, in Sacile (PN) from October to December 2014, in Dobbiaco (BZ) in the first months of 2015 and in San Vigilio di Marebbe (BZ).