ISPRA headquarters - Via Vitaliano Brancati 48, Rome

In 2012, due to the relocation of ISPRA staff from the headquarters in Via Curtatone to that of Via Brancati in Rome, ISPRA's Geological and Historical collections have all been closed, waiting to find a suitable location for their exhibition.

In 2019 the Area Attività Museali managed to exhibit, in the current ISPRA headquarters in Via Brancati 48, the Cynotherium sardous, an extinct fossil canid of the Pleistocene of Sardinia.

The specimen was found almost complete in a cave, in a layer corresponding to the glacial Würm period, and subsequently assembled in the laboratory on an iron structure.

The reconstruction of the individual, 76 cm long, was possible after a careful anatomical study for the union of the individual bones and for the position to be given to the animal itself.

The species appears characterized by short and wide paws, skilled in digging. It probably fed on small mammals, birds and other small animals.

Below is a series of photographs testifying the delicate phase of cleaning and re-assembling the canid after 7 years of packaging.