The ichnological collection of Georg Gasser (1857–1931): between fucoids and trace fossils

The Museum of Nature South Tyrol hosts the paleontological collection of Georg Gasser, a self-taught naturalist, who assembledthe most important historical collection of natural objects of the region. Born in Rentsch, Gasser started his collection probablyin 1890, creating the typical “Wunderkammer”. His exhibition contained botanical, zoological, archeological, mineralogical andpaleontological specimens. When Gasser died, part of his collection was purchased by the Mineralogical Institute of the Uni-versity of Padova, whereas some specimens were sold privately. The remaining part of his legacy was donated by the heirs toform a natural history museum in Bolzano and became the foundation of the Museum of Nature South Tyrol. Thanks to aresearch project, the Gasser paleontological collection has been given back its former glory, has been digitized using moderntechniques and a taxonomical revision is also in progress. The purpose of the research project was to characterize the collectionin terms of the number of specimens and species present as well as to understand its stratigraphic and geographical provenance.Composed of paleozoological and paleobotanical objects, the historical collection has the potential to give insights in the scien-tific memory of the collecting areas during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the areas that were sampled during those timesmay no longer be available due to constructions and/or changes in the natural or human-based landscape.
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