MATERA'S FOSSILZED MONSTER WHALE

“Giuliana”, the largest fossilized whale found in the Mediterranean area, continues to be a major attraction at the National Archaeological Museum Domenico Ridola of Matera (Basilicata) where it was put on exhibit this summer.

The fossil dates from around a million years ago during the Pleistocene era. It's immense size sets it above the average dinosaur, which is calculated to have weighed some 100 tons. The 26 meter-long monster whale instead weighed between 130 and 150 tons. It isn't known whether Giuliana was male or female, but “she” has been named after the Lake Giuliana reservoir where “she” was discovered a few kilometers from the city of Matera in 2006.

Research on the whale's skeleton involved teams of international scientists from the Universities of Pisa, Catania, and Brussels who worked incessantly recovering and analysing the fossil fragments before they could be pieced together and put on exhibit.

Examining the rock formations and sediment layers underneath the whale, scientists made a revolutionary discovery. In the remote past, when “Giuliana” inhabited the seas, the surrounding rocky area, now known as the Murgia National Park, covering part of Basilicata and spreading out over Apulia, was in fact an archipelagos in the middle of an ocean that connected the present Ionian Sea with the Adriatic. This explains how the whale managed to be found as if stranded on land that is now quite distant from the sea.

Giuliana the Whale is now on permanent display at the Domenico Ridola museum of the celebrated cave city of Matera

Info: Museo Nazionale di Matera Domenico Ridola Te; +30.0835.310058

www.museonaziomaledimatera.it mp.my@cultura.gov.iy