In the geological range of 3 million to 1 million years ago, the Tuscany region was home to mastodons, elephants (precursors to mammoths), rhinoceroses, hippos, and enormous deer. The amazing Collection of Fossil Mammals of Valdarno, gathered over millennia by generations of scientists and housed in the Museum of Geology and Paleontology, part of the University of Florence Museum System, has received a major award. It was, in fact, chosen by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) as one of the first geocollections of international historical and scientific importance, i.e. collections made up of rocks, minerals, or, in this case, fossils, which are critical for reconstructing the history of life on our planet and the history of science. The Florentine collection was one of the most popular among international specialists, and it will be shown alongside eleven other collections at the 37th International Geological Congress, which is currently underway in Busan, South Korea. The collection includes fossil bones of mammals collected in the Arno valley and studied in Florence since the late Renaissance. Naturalist Andrea Cesalpino, custodian of the collections of Grand Duke Ferdinand I, spoke in 1596 of giant bones found in Valdarno, which Niccolò Stenone interpreted as elephant bones in 1668.