27th March 2018: Turiasaurus riodevensis {Dinosaurs in Teruel, 2018}

In the morning we walked back to the Torre del Salvador because we had learnt that you could climb it up.

Inner structure of the tower + views of the city

Then we dropped by the Museo de Arte Sacro de Teruel (Christian Art Museum).

Former cloister with a glass roof

After having lunch we drove off to Riodeva to visit the Dinópolis mini-museum, called Titania. Riodeva is a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, but in the palaeontological site there scientists discovered the biggest European sauropod, the Turiasaurus riodevensis. It is believed that the Turiasaurus, which lived in the Jurassic period, could be almost 40 metres long and just under 50 tonnes.

The guide here was nice, but horribly misinformed, claiming unscientific facts – such as scientists believing that Megalodon still prowls the ocean, and I might have got into a small discussion with her. Don’t get me wrong, aside from being #TeamTRex, I love megs from the bottom of my heart, but there should be a limit on how many urban legends you can claim as true in an educational facility, and that limit is zero.

Turiasaurus fossil pieces + head reproduction; crocodile head; megalodon tooth

Finally we drove back to Teruel and the next day (28th) we were off home first thing in the morning as I had a medical appointment that had come up after the trip was booked.