Apaleontological siteunder the stationCarpetana Metro, onMadrid, has become a unique exhibition to introduce travelers to the animal and plant life of the area in theMiocene, the period between 23 and 5 million years ago.
Since the beginning of the works to improve the station in March 2008, specialists have foundmore than 15,000 fossil remainswith an antiquity superior to the 14 million years. Among these findings, jaws ofprimitive horse(Anchitherium), remains ofmastodons(Gomphotherium angustidens), as well as rhinos,ruminants(cervids, bovids), giant tortoises and carnivores. Several pieces of a species of wolf have also been found (Hemycion sansaniensis) and even abundant fossils (jaws, canines) ofanficiónido(Amphycion giganteus), predator and scavenger with an intermediate morphology between bear and dog, which occupied the top of the trophic pyramid at this time in Madrid.
Although it is common for archaeological and paleontological remains to be found in the different works carried out at the Metro de Madrid facilities for their improvement and expansion, the Carpetana station has becomethe largest deposit found in the suburban network.
To complement the exposition, it has been publishedthe book Madrid before man, published by the General Directorate of Historical Heritage and dedicated to paleontology, in which it is intended at the same time to give a broad and simple vision of what this region was like before the appearance of human beings, what animals inhabited it and what the landscapes of the past.
