The Geological and Paleontological Museum was born in 1860 thanks to the work of Giovanni Capellini , professor and geologist who a ministerial appointment called to hold the first chair of Geology established in Italy at the University of Bologna . However, the structure officially opened its doors in 1881 on the occasion of the II International Geological Congress in which scholars and professors from different countries took part who contributed to enrich the museum collection by bringing, for the occasion, important finds from all over the world. and which were donated to the museum once the symposium was concluded.

The original nucleus of the Geological and Paleontological Museum, formed by the collection of Ulisse Aldrovandi and dating back to the sixteenth century, by Ferdinando Cospi and the Institute of Sciences founded by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili , was thus expanding and enriching itself. Currently the collection testifies to more than five hundred years of didactic activity and scientific research , with a heritage of almost one million pieces preserved in the original furnishings of the late nineteenth century including rocks, plants, invertebrates and fossil vertebrates.

In the rooms you can admire the spectacular skeletons of the Pliocene proboscidum Mastodon, the rich collection of Eocene fish from Monte Bolca, Pliocene whales and the imposing Jurassic dinosaur model Diplodocus , twenty-six meters long and four high.