Center for Geo-Paleontological Studies

The Centro di Documentazione Paleontologico is devoted to the fossil bonebed located at about 1180 m above the sea level on the side of the Greco Mountain north of the hamlet of Scontrone.

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The site was discovered in 1991. It contains a large amount of bones and teeth of land vertebrates, preserved in Lower Tortonian (Upper Miocene) calcarenites and marls dated around 10 million years.
The sample is largely represented by artiodactyl and reptile bones, the latter including crocodiles and paludal turtles. A few specimens belong to a past relative of modern sea otters and the fragment of a maxillary bone, one of Scontrone’s most recent finds, attests to the presence of a giant insectivore.

The remains accumulated under warm, moist climatic conditions on a coastal plain, in subtidal creeks, as well as in swamps and lagoons periodically swept by storms. The peculiar depositional environment and post-burial conditions favoured the preservation and successive fossilization of the bones.



The Scontrone fauna is very bizarre, but not unique. In fact, a very similar, but slightly younger assemblage was found in the late 1970’s in the Gargano peninsula, in Apulia. We can therefore talk about a Scontrone-Gargano faunal community.
The most curious, but also most revealing components of this community are the artiodactyls. They are all classified in the genus Hoplitomeryx, which means “armored ruminant”, a name chosen to highlight their outstanding, five dreadful cranial appendages which some of them bore on the forehead and over each orbital rim. These strange creatures also had oddly shaped limbs and weird fusions in their rearlimb bones Scontrone yielded a considerable amount of skeletal remains of Hoplitomeryx, jawbones, isolated teeth, skull fragments, as well as pieces of many other parts of the skeleton, attesting to the occurrence of at least five species. Though very similar in their overall morphological traits, these species differ in their dental features and limb proportions. All this tells us that the puzzling hoplitomerycids derived from a common ancestral stock, but it also implies that these animals had adapted to a variety of vast sub-environments in which the Abruzzo-Apulian land was subdivided.


The presence of paludal turtles and crocodiles attests to the occurrence of water, both fresh and brackish, under warm and moist subtropical conditions. Turtle carapax fragments are associated to Mauremys, a genus now extinct in Italy, but still present in Spain, in the Balcans, and in extra-European areas. The latest discovery, of great scientific relevance, is a fragmental maxillary, with two cheek teeth still preserved on it, of a giant ancient insectivore, Deinogalerix freudenthali. Deinogalerix means “terrible porcupine”.

 
Combined paleontological and geological information indicates that the land fauna reached the area moving from central Europe to the Balcans and then through a short-lasting landbridge, stretched from the Balcans to the Gargano through the present-day Tremiti islands some 29 million years ago, i.e. during the Late Oligocene. The survival of the Abruzzo and Apulia ungulates and insectivores throughout the Miocene proves the existence of an ancient Abruzzo-Apulian land.



The different adaptations of its species, however, indicate that this land must have supported a varied environment and/or that it was an archipelago of relatively broad islands.
The Centro di Documentazione “Hoplitomeryx” was created to illustrate the scientific information disclosed by the researches on this unique bonebed. Some specimens were first shown in 2003. Later on, in 2006, the exhibit was further extended and enriched with multimedially-conveyed information where visitors can improve their knowledge on specific topics. with new glass-cases. A very attractive tri-dimensional diorama was also recently assembled to show Scontrone’s original Miocene natural settings.

 
After the stopover in the Centro, visitors can book a walk up to Scontrone’s fossil site through a path which is marked with signposts where sites of interest are illustrated by explanatory panels. On fair weathered spring, summer or autumn days, visitors can book a visit to see the astonishing collection of entangled bones in an exposed portion of Scontrone’s fossil bonebed. In 1993 the bonebed was declared site of special scientific interest and is now protected by law.

To book a visit at the Centro and at the fossil bonebed visitors are kindly requested to contact the Comune by calling 0864.87149.