Dinosaurs in La Rioja – Deposits

Finding Enciso
Further information

Peter J Perkins (UK)

This text is for many who like a geological excuse for visiting locations. There could be quaint villages, great surroundings and weird wildlife however, if there’s some particular geology, a lot the higher.

La Rioja is among the small areas of northern Spain. It’s the dwelling of well-known wines, however it was once the house of dinosaurs, whose stays are discovered within the south of the area, near the border with Soria province, the place additionally they happen.

start line is the village of Enciso, the place there’s a museum (Centro Paleontológico).

Fig. 2. Entrance of city corridor in Enciso displaying footprints on the clock face.

For such an out-of-the-way place, this comes as a shock – no dusty room of cupboards with miscellaneous bones and uncertain labels right here. First, you’ll be able to see panorama work of ‘then’ and ‘now’ (Fig. 3), adopted by a display screen displaying the reconstructions now we have turn into used to since Jurassic Park – a household of dinosaurs wandering, looking out, feeding and relating to one another. The show rooms have a excessive commonplace of presentation with data boards and specimens.

Fig. 3. ‘Then’ and ‘now’ views of the native space.

The museum is straightforward to comply with, protecting the that means of the dinosaurs’ names, whether or not they had been chilly or heat blooded, their food regimen, their eggs, the local weather of the time, attainable causes for his or her extinction, their classification and the excellence between bird-like and reptile-like hips. With the distinguished title, Dime como andas, y te diré como eres (“Inform me the way you stroll, and I’ll let you know what you’re like”), there’s a proof of how it’s attainable to find out a dinosaur’s gait, weight and velocity from an examination of its footprint.

Fig. 5. One other dinosaur footprint, this time highlighted with white traces..

Within the basement, there’s a room with a spread of actions to go well with completely different ages, some giving a chance for locating out extra, others for testing one’s understanding and a few easy ‘head-body-legs’ video games (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Studying extra within the basement.

Fig. 7. A room contained in the museum displaying a board for *Psittacosaurus*, the ‘parrot lizard’.

The world of curiosity extends 60km east-west and 10km north-south, and is split into three driving routes, Enciso being central to one in every of them. On the sting of this city, over the River Cidacos, could be discovered an indication, which explains that over 3,000 dinosaur traces have been discovered. Entry to close by localities is illustrated and we visited La Virgen de Campo (that means “The Virgin of the Subject”).

Fig. 8. Skulls of the small-headed, plant-eating ornithischian, *Stegosaurus* (left), and the large-headed, carnivorous theropod, *Allosaurus fragilis*, with the distinctive bony ridges on the highest and serrated blade-like tooth (proper).

The strata listed here are Decrease Cretaceous (130 to 110 million years in the past) and there’s proof of a mudslide (interpreted as being brought on by an earthquake), indicators of burrows in lake backside sediments and, better of all, an encounter between two dinosaurs. It appears it was not a pleasant assembly – the sample of prints suggests a battle between the herbivorous Iguanodon and a carnivorous allosaurid predator (Fig. 11).

Fig. 9. Demonstration of the work of palaeontologists.

Two localities alongside the street LR356, east-south-east of Enciso are price particular point out. At Poyales, there are 20 prints of a dinosaur unique to the world (Theroplantigrada encisensis). And at Valdecevillo,there are 4 effectively preserved marks of a carnivorous dinosaur, proof of a household group of herbivores (two adults and a cub) ascending a stream bed, and 59 prints of the feet and hands of a quadrupedal herbivore. Close to the fossil sites, the landscape is dominated by replicas which, when seen from a distance as one rounds a corner, make an impressive sight (Figs. 11 and 12).

Fig. 10. A framed *Pterodactylus* from Solnhofen, Bavaria.

However, dinosaurs were no respecters of boundaries – their footprints are found in neighbouring regions, but each area treats their own as if none exist elsewhere. Therefore, publicity in one area makes no reference at all to what’s just over the border.

Fig. 11. Replicas – an allosaurid fighting an *Iguanodon.*

Fig. 12. A replica of *Brachiosaurus* with a *Homo sapiens* sheltering underneath from the rain

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that all of the information is in Spanish, but it is important to add that a lot of the key words are scientific and so are recognisable and, in lots of cases, one can easily make sense of what has been written, for example, “muy bien estado de conservación” means “very good state of preservation”.

Finding Enciso

Look for the A68 motorway going south-east from Logroño to Zaragoza. Turn off at Calahorra onto the LR134 to go south-west to Arnedo and continue up the valley of the Rio Cidacos for about 30km to Enciso. Peter Perkins is a retired teacher of geology and geography, and is now a U3A tutor in Diss, Norfolk.