To establish when humans appeared on Earth, it then became essential to have knowledge of a precise time scale. The study of fossil remains is certainly one of the most used methods to date the eras quite accurately, and geologists and paleoanthropologists are constantly working to define the chronological framework of our planet with greater precision.
In the Benevento area, near Pietraroja, there is a true fossil deposit, a kind of “geological clock.” It seems that due to the orographic uplifts caused by the detachment of the European continent from the African one that occurred 180 million years ago, the small village found itself more than 800 meters high. This is evidenced by the many fossils of fish and algae scattered here and there over an area of 40 hectares; the area of these findings is barren, and the surface of the laminated rock harshly reflects the sun; the outlines of the small fossils blend into the light rays, and one must be careful not to step on the cast of a fish or a shell. We are among the mountains of Titerno and Mutri, at 818 meters above sea level, and not far away, at Bocca della Selva, there is a famous ski resort.
In this area, research and studies began in 1746, and with Scipione Breislak there were the first discoveries of petrified eggs and fossilized algae in the rock. 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. After these important findings, it was decided to protect the fossils with small “futuristic” plexiglass domes, and a geopaleontological park, perhaps unique in Europe, the Pietraroja park, was established.
