Cenni di Storia della Paleontologia dei Vertebrati in Italia. In: BONFIGLIO L. (Ed.), Paleontologia dei Vertebrati in Italia.

In this short note a very brief review of the History of Vertebrate Palaeontology in Italy has been done. During Classical and Medieval times the remains of fossil vertebrates have been considered as belonging to giants or monsters. In the XVII century the true nature of the fossils and their organic origin has been accepted by the scholars of Natural History but only during the second half of the XVIII century Vertebrate Palaeontology has been transformed in a modern science. The XIX century and the first half of the XX century have been characterized by the increase of 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 and biochronology, palaeoecology, palaeoclimatology, palaeobiogeography of the fossil assemblages have been studied.