To establish when humans appeared on Earth, a precise timescale became indispensable. The study of fossil remains is certainly one of the most widely used methods to date eras fairly accurately, and geologists and paleoanthropologists are constantly working to define the chronological framework of our planet more precisely.
In the Benevento area, near Pietraroja, there is a true fossil deposit, a kind of “geological clock.” It seems that due to orographic uplifts caused by the separation of the European continent from the African one occurring 180 million years ago, the small town ended up at over 800 meters of elevation. Evidence of this are the many fossils of fish and algae scattered here and there over an area of 40 hectares; the area of these finds is barren, and the surface of the laminated rock harshly reflects the sun; the outlines of the small fossils blend into the rays of light and one must be careful not to step on the imprint of some fish or shell. We are among the Titerno and Mutri mountains, at 818 meters above sea level, and nearby, at Bocca della Selva, there is a famous ski resort.
In this area, research and studies began in 1746, and with Scipione Breislak, the first finds of petrified eggs and fossilized algae in rock were made. Then in 1977, the outlines of some teleosts—fish with a bony skeletal structure—dating back 150 million years to the Jurassic period, were brought to light. Following these important discoveries, it was decided to protect the fossils with small “futuristic” plexiglass domes and to establish a geopaleontological park perhaps unique in Europe, the Pietraroja park.
