Back from the ashes. The forgotten ‘Pampas’ Fossils’ Collection from the Milan Natural History Museum

The Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano is one of Italy's oldest Natural History museums and houses several historic collections spanning the fields of biology, geology, and palaeontology. Among these, one of the most remarkable is the “Fossils of the Pampas” Collection, a palaeontological assemblage that was once among the largest collections of South American Quaternary megafaunas in Europe. The collection also featured a complete, mounted skeleton of Megatherium americanum until its loss in 1943, due to a fire triggered by the Allied aircraft bombing during World War II. Thanks to novel information and technology, the salvaged remains of this collection were analysed and re-evaluated. This was possible through the digitisation of the best-preserved specimens and the creation of a new inventory, along with the reconstruction of the collection's history using the documentation provided by the Museum and the digitisation of the historical labels. As a result of our investigation, the “Fossils of the Pampas” Collection currently includes 506 specimens, referable to at least nine different taxa whose taxonomy was revised according to the most modern consensus. Yet, most of the remaining assemblage is composed of scattered and charred fragments. Only 23 specimens were selected to be digitised using 3D portable digital scanners. We also traced the origin of the collection back to 1871, when Emilio Cornalia, then director of the Milan Museum, purchased the assembly from Antonio Pozzi, a former technician in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” (Buenos Aires, Argentina). The final goal is to create a digital database that might include the most important Cenozoic mammals housed in the Milan Natural History Museum and eventually shed new light on the “Fossils of the Pampas” Collection. This may emphasise the importance of using modern technologies to enhance the modalities of preservation and storage of the local palaeontological heritage inside the museums.