A few weeks ago, two residents of Basturs (Lleida) found several remains of huge bones while shepherding their flock. Paleontologists from the Catalan Institute of Paleontology (ICP) and the Conca Dellá Museum confirmed what the discoverers thought: they were dinosaur bones.
The findings join the more than a thousand remains of these animals that have already been found in this municipality of the Catalan pre-Pyrenees. In this case they are hadrosaurs, a group of herbivores also known as duck-billed dinosaurs due to their flat snout. The new site is already known as Costa de les Solanes and it preserves remains of the last dinosaurs that lived in Europe, between 70 and 65 million years ago.
In recent days, scientists have applied for permits to the Department of Culture without making too much noise, since the bones were very visible and there was a risk of looting by poachers 'fossil hunters'. The excavations began yesterday and will be part of the research project on the dinosaurs of the Catalan Pyrenees carried out by the ICP.
