The great ichthyosaurus of Mount Secëda

Face to face with a creature that is half fish, half saurian, ten metres long and armed with sharp teeth: although the Ichthyosaurus Cymbospondylus lived 241 million years ago, such an encounter is still possible. Thanks to virtual reality from 2021 onwards it can be experienced first-hand in the Gherdëina Museum in Ortisei. A video of the project made by the young paleontologist Nicola Castelnuovo shows how enormous this marine animal was that dominated the Tethys Ocean 240 million years ago.

The VR experience is based on the fossilised bone remains of an ichthyosaur found on Mount Secëda in 1968, unique in the world for the period of the Ladinicum. They served experts as the starting point for a scientific reconstruction, including not only the ichthyosaur itself, but also its habitat in the Tethys Ocean, which it dominated for almost 100 million years.


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