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.)
You can search for specific sites in the map at the right or browse through the entries below. (More posts are added as they get visited!)
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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…
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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…