dinosaurs

Group of hadrosaurids arrived from Asia some 275,000 years earlier than thought, say researchers

Paleontologists discovered remains of hadrosaurs, teeth from carnivorous dinosaurs, and titanosaur egg fragments

An investigation in the Pyrenees in the areas of Lleida (western Catalonia) and Huesca (northern Aragon) may have found the footprints of the last dinosaurs that inhabited Europe. The footprints are said to come from the Hadrosaurid family of dinosaurs and roughly be 65.5 million years old. The amount of fossils and footprints of dinosaurs that exist from the era just before their extinction - 65 million years ago - is scarce and limited to just a few places worldwide. Now one of those placed is in the Pyrenees.

The Fumanya palaeontological site, located in the northern Catalan County of Berguerà, has one of the most important collections of dinosaur fossils in Europe. The remains of more than 3,500 footprints, as well as bones, eggs, and other remains were discovered accidentally in 1985. Between the years 2000 and 2008, the palaeontological site was analysed and tourist visits have since been organised. Furthermore, in 2012, the site’s new information centre will open its doors to the public and will explain dinosaurs in great detail.

CNA talks to the Catalan paleontologist Bernat Vila about how collaboration with the University of Manchester gave him the power to excavate the pre-historic Fumanya site in Central Catalonia’s. The site was pictured in the National Geographic series ‘Dinosaurs CSI’.