Welcome to the new (refurbished) Po Plain Project blog! This blog contains information and project updates about the Po Plain Project, a National Science Foundation project that is currently based at the University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, and the University of Bologna, Italy.

What is Po Plain and Why Does it Matter to Paleontologists?: The Po Plain is a river plain that is the product of deposition from the Po River, located in the northeastern corner of Italy, adjacent to the Adriatic Sea. The paleontological record that lies below the surface of the Po Plain allows paleontologists to use the region to better understand the dynamics of sediment deposition, sequence stratigraphy, and invertebrate fossils in reconstructing past environments. The map shows some of the areas where sediment cores were sampled for this project as red dots.

This blog will highlight certain aspects of the project, such as the fieldwork, data collection, laboratory work, and sample processing. The blog is intended to give readers a peek “behind the scenes” into the steps involved in this international multi-year NSF project, as well as to introduce some of the science of paleoecology and sequence stratigraphy to a general audience. Our goal here is to provide educational content about this project and its scientific significance.