From the Dodo to the Slender-billed Curlew. The Extinct Birds of the La Specola Museum

From October 4 to December 14, 2025, an exhibition to reflect on the loss of biodiversity — a phenomenon that can be measured tangibly in the extinction of animal species, often caused directly or indirectly by human activity.

In the bird group alone, over 130 species have gone extinct in historical times. About 10% of these are preserved in the La Specola Museum of the University of Florence.

This exhibition, conceived by Fausto Barbagli and Giuseppina Eva of the University Museum System (SMA), offers a unique opportunity to observe rare specimens of now-extinct species, such as the passenger pigeon, once the most numerous bird on the planet, which went extinct in 1914.

The exhibition also invites reflection on the causes of extinction, highlighting humanity’s profound responsibility toward nature and the moral duty to protect it.