Promotional Poster Premio Italiano Paleoarte – V Edition

DECIPHERING THE PUZZLE
Artwork for the official poster of PREMIO ITALIANO DI PALEOARTE 2025.

As tradition, the winner of the first prize of the Italian Paleoart Prize promoted by @museopaleontologicomontevarchi and @paleoappi, has the possibility to create the artwork for the following year’s edition. This time I had this honor.

So here it is! “Deciphering the puzzle”, the artwork I made for this year’s edition of the prize.
This year we opted to show another glimpse in Italy’s paleontological heritage. Instead of a safari in the Serengeti-like Pleistocene plains of Valdarno, we took a dip in Late Cretaceous waters of the Paleo Tethys sea.
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During the Campanian, where today lies the Appennini mountain range, there was a shallow sea, populated by a large quantity of sea animals, such as Mosasaurs.
In a sheltered trait of the coast females Mosasaurus cf. hoffmannii come to give birth to their offspring.

The newborn marine reptiles start to eagerly explore the environment all around. One of them bumped into a group of ammonites Nostoceras hyatti, hidden in sea grass (Posidonia sp.).
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I would like to thank all the team from the Museum of Montevarchi, @paleoarte and @lisa.locchi for the work together at the poster layout. 💚😍 Big thanks also to @trilobitedesignitalia and to @she_paleo that gave me a huge help in understanding more of ammonites anatomy and evolutionary history 🐚🙏

Ps. The painting has a hidden message within the title and the composition, soon I’ll tell you more 😊