Evolutionary Theory and the Florence Paleontological Collections

Abstract Florence has a tradition of Natural Philosophy, and since as early as the sixteenth century fossils were collected by the Granduke. The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence houses today collections that belonged to Nicolas Steno, when fossils were for the first time used as documents to reconstruct Earth history. Natural philosophers and geologists, both Italian and foreigners, continued to study fossils collected in Tertiary strata of Tuscany until the nineteenth century, when the first speculations on the origin of species were proposed. Charles Darwin himself mentions fossil vertebrates that are today on show in our museum. In the last years, this part of the history of science has been proposed to the public. The aim was to foster an understanding of the centrality of fossils in two cultural revolutions, the discovery of deep time and the birth of evolutionary theory–connected among themselves and with the emergence of geology. Dedicated volumes, public conferences, guided visits to the collections, and field trips to paleontological sites have attracted an attentive and responsive public, showing that the history of science can help deliver modern evolutionary thinking. Other activities aimed at students of all ages have also shown that the interaction between schools, university teachers, and museum personnel is vital to form the mind of future generations on the reality of the evolution of natural systems

THE FOSSIL VERTEBRATE DATABASE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF FLORENCE AND HIGH-RESOLUTION MAGNETIC STRATIGRAPHY IN THE UPPER VALDARNO BASINS, AS A CLUE TO DATE OLD COLLECTIONS

The well established biochronologic sequence of the Villafranchian Stage in Italy is mainly based on faunal associations from the Upper Valdarno (UV) mostly collected since the late 18 hundreds, and housed in the Natural History Museum of Florence. The old collections were assembled from mostly unidentified stratigraphic levels, and their position possibly reconstructed from the surrounding geologic features. The recent magnetostratigraphic assessment of the sequence marked the earliest finds about 3.0 Ma in themid Pliocene. The end of the Pliocene was recorded by the Olduvai magnetochron in the Matassino and Poggio Rosso sites, and by other sparse assemblages. The Tasso Faunal Unit, assembled in the UV, is assigned to the Pleistocene, yet to be clarified by magnetostratigraphic data. The calibration of old, poorly timed faunas was greatly facilitatedby the computer automated catalogue of the Museum. The possibility of numerous feed-back controls enhanced any contradictory information in fossil collections and made them most fruitful for paleomagnetic calibrations: the Faella fauna and the Faella main outcrop are the ones that will be first re-examined. It is in fact now evidenced the potential role of the catalogue for accomplishing the calibration of old findings timed around the Olduvai chron, with an accuracy depending on the available record of their inferred stratigraphic levels. Numerical dates will make the old collections comparable to the new ones and both fitting into a comprehensive framework of faunal, chronologic, sedimentary evolution of the UV basin, and development in the Plio-Pleistocene climate changes.&nbsp

DESCRIPTION AND INTERPRETATION OF A MEGATHERIUM AMERICANUM ATLAS WITH EVIDENCE OF HUMAN INTERVENTION

This paper discusses a Megatherium americanum atlas from the Pampas region of Argentina, which is currently housed at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze, Italy. Traces of anthropic cut marks were found on the dorsal and ventral faces of the posterior part, in articulation with the axis. This is the first time that this type of evidence has been documented on this element of this species. The position of these marks suggests that they resulted from the act of separating the head from the postcranial skeleton. They were therefore most likely made in an effort to exploit the contents of the head. Current research focusing on museum collections employing modern methods can provide new and valuable information, despite the general lack of contextualization of these pieces. In the case studied here, these methods have allowed us to delve deeper into the first dispersal of Homo sapiens and their interaction with the native fauna in the South American Southern Cone.&nbsp

Insights into the lower torso in late Miocene hominoid Oreopithecus bambolii

Oreopithecus bambolii (8.3-6.7 million years old) is the latest known hominoid from Europe, dating to approximately the divergence time of the Pan-hominin lineages. Despite being the most complete nonhominin hominoid in the fossil record, the O. bambolii skeleton IGF 11778 has been, for decades, at the center of intense debate regarding the species' locomotor behavior, phylogenetic position, insular paleoenvironment, and utility as a model for early hominin anatomy. Here we investigate features of the IGF 11778 pelvis and lumbar region based on torso preparations and supplemented by other O. bambolii material. We correct several crucial interpretations relating to the IGF 11778 anterior inferior iliac spine and lumbar vertebrae structure and identifications. We find that features of the early hominin Ardipithecus ramidus torso that are argued to have permitted both lordosis and pelvic stabilization during upright walking are not present in O. bambolii. However, O. bambolii also lacks the complete reorganization for torso stiffness seen in extant great apes (i.e., living members of the Hominidae), and is more similar to large hylobatids in certain aspects of torso form. We discuss the major implications of the O. bambolii lower torso anatomy and how O. bambolii informs scenarios of hominoid evolution

Atteggiamento degli utenti verso il centro commerciale e finalità di utilizzo del sito web: prime evidenze empiriche.

L’obiettivo del paper è di analizzare le caratteristiche del sito web aziendale che potrebbero esercitare la maggiore attrazione nei confronti del consumatore influenzando positivamente la sua intenzione di recarsi al punto vendita. Il contesto di analisi riguarda il settore distributivo e, in particolare, il format dei centri commerciali. Il lavoro è supportato da un’indagine empirica, di tipo quantitativo, condotta su un campione di 438 studenti universitari