Paleolab

Geology and paleontology museum in Pietraroja with reconstructions, 3D videos and fossils, including the small dinosaur Ciro (Scipionyx samniticus).

Opening hoursFree admission

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About the museum

Paleolab is a geology and paleontology museum that opened on 10 April 2005 in Pietraroja, in the province of Benevento. It reconstructs the environment that surrounded the area about 110 million years ago, when the small dinosaur Scipionyx samniticus, nicknamed Ciro, lived here; it was found in this very area.

The museum stands near the Pietraroja geopaleontological park, where as early as 1798 the geologist Scipione Breislak reported the presence of fossils. The discovery of Italy’s first dinosaur, around 1980, showed that the area had been dry land and not entirely submerged by the sea, as had been thought.

The displays, curated by the physicist Paco Lanciano, include video projections, some of them three-dimensional, scale models and various local fossils, some of which are copies because the originals are kept in the Museo di Paleontologia dell’Università di Napoli Federico II. The most important exhibit is the fossil of Ciro, with exceptionally well-preserved soft tissue and internal organs.

Highlights

Fossil of Scipionyx samniticus (Ciro) with preserved internal organs
Reconstruction of the environment 110 million years ago
Video projections, some in 3D
Scale models and local fossils
Near the Pietraroja geopaleontological park

Permanent exhibition

Percorso paleontologico – Reconstruction of the landscape 110 million years ago with 3D videos, models and fossils, including Ciro.

Founded: 2005