Cenni di Storia della Paleontologia dei Vertebrati in Italia

In this short note a very brief review of the History of Vertebrate Palaeontology in Italy is given. During Classical and Medieval times the remains of fossil vertebrates were considered as belonging to giants or monsters. In the XVII century the true nature of the fossils and their organic origin had been accepted by the scholars of Natural History but it was only during the second half of the XVIII century that Vertebrate Palaeontology was transformed in a modern science. The XIX century and the first half of the XX century have been characterized by an increase in the knowledge of fossil assemblages, the discovery of many fossiliferous sites and the systematic description of a very large number of taxa. In the last fifty years new fields of studies have been developed which have lead to the study of the biochronology, palaeoecology, palaeoclimatology, palaeobiogeography of fossil assemblages.