A Whale in a Vineyard: Palaeontological Preparation and Education During the ‘Brunella’ Project, a Large-Scale Conservation Effort Focused on a Pliocene Whale in Southern Tuscany, Italy

In 2007, a whale skeleton was found and excavated in Lower Pliocene sediments at Poggio alle Mura (southern Tuscany, central Italy). This partially complete skeleton is known by the nickname ‘Brunella’. The extracted blocks containing the fossil whale were deposited in a warehouse where they remained for nine years. A new project started in 2016 with the goal of (a) preparing and stabilising the whale bones, (b) studying its anatomy and relationships, and (c) developing educational activities to disseminate scientific information to local communities and tourists. In the years 2016–2019, the ‘Brunella’ Project gave rise to an unprecedented number of activities in terms of scientific and educational efforts. The skeleton was micro-excavated, stabilised and prepared for exhibition; primary and secondary schools as well as university students were involved in educational activities both at the preparation laboratory and in their classrooms. University students were involved in a field school on palaeontological preparation that was active for three years (1 week per year); local populations were invited to visit the laboratory during special Open days where they were able to see palaeontologists working on the project, the whale and the palaeoecosystem in which it ended its life cycle; foreign tourists visited the laboratory and were involved in guided tours; social media were extensively used to disseminate results and advertise opportunities to visit the laboratory; a national TV channel screened a documentary on the whale and the project, disseminating a wealth of scientific results to hundreds of thousands of people. This project represents a unicum in Italy and can be seen as a prototype standard of an ideal process directed at preserving an important palaeontological specimen and, at the same time, enhancing the awareness and enthusiasm of local citizens for their local geoheritage.