Portugal is well-known for its collection of dinosaur fossils. In fact, the town of Lourinhã is well known as “Dinosaur Town.” Fossil hunters often scour the coast around Lourinha and find treasures. There are a number of sites around the country where fossils can be visited – usually ichnofossils or “trace fossils” (in Portuguese, icnofosseis) which are the fossilized record of an animal rather than the animal itself. Dinosaur footprints (in Portuguese, pegadas de dinossaurios) abound! (Many fossils are, of course, excavated and displayed in museums.)
Use the map in the sidebar to browse or search among the various prehistoric sites. (The “Filters” control in the top right corner allows you to select types of sites.) Highlighted map markers indicate sites that are described on this website. Below is a list of all the fossil sites on our website (so far!).
-
Pedra da Mua Natural Monument
Lean against the wooden railing and look out to sea. The wind off the Atlantic Ocean brings sounds of the surf and seabirds, as well as the scent of the salt water. Look down to the ocean, hundreds of meters below. The ocean pounds against the shore and roils as it curls around the inlet.…
-
Dinosaur Footprints of Praia Grande
Looking up at the cliff face, you might think that the footprints were made by lizards climbing up a wall. However, the prints were laid down on a flat muddy lake bed over 100 million years ago. Two-legged dinosaurs left their prints in the mud, which then fossilized and the ground folded by tectonic movement,…
-
Trilobite Museum
In the gallery, the rectangular sheets of black rock line the walls all around. White-grey images adorn each one. Some are of individual animals, others of groups. Many simply show the trilobites as they had lived (or at least, as they had died). Others showed evidence of specific behaviours such as traveling in a column,…
-
Lagosteiros Natural Monument
Updated September 2024 Stand on the headland facing the Atlantic Ocean. To your left, just across the bay sheltering Lagosteiros Beach, lies Cabo Espichel which is the furthest point of the Setúbal peninsula. In front, the ocean stretches out to the Americas. To your right, you can make out Lisbon and the Sintra hills across…
-
Dinosaur Footprints of Parede Beach
It’s a sunny day at the beach in Parede, on the Lisbon coast. Families have set up beach chairs and towels on the sand. Children are playing in the small puddles in the beach rocks. Some splash at the water in a series of nearly circular bowls, 50cm across. Few of them, if any, realize…