Today the Abruzzo Apennines are home to wolves, eagles and bears, but millions of years ago the area was dominated by a very different predator.
An Italian biologist, Dr Paola Ottino, has discovered shark teeth in the Majella area of the Apennines that date back to the Miocene period - 23-5 million years ago.
"At that time the area was populated by sharks and all sorts of fish," Ottino explained.
The teeth are part of evidence Ottino has compiled that show how Abruzzo was once home to a marine environment with a coral reef similar to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
"We have found fossil remains with typical elements of a sea bed, including molluscs and coral," she continued.
"We have even unearthed the teeth of delta Crocodilian animals similar to today's Gharial reptiles of the Ganges.
"This shows that in the Miocene era the area was covered by tropical seas that were not too deep and quite near to the coast".
It is a scenario that present day visitors to the Majella national park will find difficult to imagine.
Geological movements have since created peaks that climb over 2,700 metres above sea level.
Ottino said only the sharks' teeth have survived because the rest of their skeletons were cartilaginous and decomposed.
But this has not presented any major problems for the researcher.
"It's easy to imagine how the sharks would have lived and what they would have looked like," she said.
"They are such perfect predators that they have hardly evolved since the Miocene period. So they would have been pretty similar to the sharks of today".
The Majella area is famous for its cluster of mountain peaks, over 30 of which are more than 2,000-meters high.
The tallest is Mt Amaro, which at 2,793 metres is the second tallest in the Apennines.
The Majella national park spreads out over an area of 74,000 hectares split between the provinces of Pescara, L'Aquila and Chieti.
The landscape is rich with rivers, waterfalls, fauna and flora, making it popular with trekking enthusiasts.
