and spans an area of over . The most celebrated items in the museum include vertebrate fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The Museum of Biomedical Sciences is also open to the general public and provides educational programming. It includes an auditorium and a special library, as well as a number of scientific laboratories for activities of archaeological conservation and research in anthropology. It receives about 13,000 visitors every year. The institution is a member of the International Council of Museums. Rankings In its 2017 report, Il Sole 24 Ore ranked D'Annunzio University as the 27th-best public university in Italy. The SCImago Institutions Rankings listed it at number 25 among the top universities nationwide, and number 502 overall among the world best universities. D'Annunzio University was included in the 2018 U.S. News & World Report of the world's top 1000 universities. Its School of Medicine and Health Sciences was also rated one of the world's top 600 medical institutions. According to the 2018 ANVUR report, it has the top-ranked department of physical sciences nationwide. In the 2017 issue of the CWTS Leiden Ranking, D'Annunzio University was ranked 572nd among world universities. The University Ranking by Academic Performance ranked it 38th among national universities and 712nd overall among academic institutions worldwide. In addition, it was included among the top 500 universities of Europe by Webometrics Ranking of World Universities and is one of the 48 Italian higher education institutions to appear in the 2017 report of the Center for World University Rankings. Research D'Annunzio University has long been associated with basic and advanced scientific research. In addition to state funding, it receives financial support from the D'Annunzio University Foundation, an organization which exists to manage gifts and donations to the university. The Foundation manages the university's endowment, which helps provide support for long-term university goals and for other scientific purposes. In addition to research conducted in the individual academic schools and departments, D'Annunzio University includes a number of research centres and institutes, including the Centre for Research in Aging (CeSI), the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies (ITAB), a clinical research center, the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre, and the CeSI Biotech Department. The former is accredited by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The institutes scientific works have been published on major academic journals, including PNAS and PLOS One. An operational unit of sports medicine is centred on the