I had to run some errands in Alcalá de Henares in the afternoon, so I decided I would get there in the morning, and walk to the Archaeology and Palaeontology museum Museo Arqueológico y Paleontológico de la Comunidad de Madrid, MARPA. The exhibition “Dragon Hunters” Cazadores de Dragones was still running and since it was a random weekday morning, I thought it would be empty.

I was right, it was deserted enough that the security guard looked at me weirdly. Yes, I’ve been there before. Twice. I hope to be back at least once more before the exhibit closes in January 2025. The security guard should not be remembering me, I did nothing weird. Taking a few hundred photographs of a fossil is completely normal.

Why am I so obsessed about the Concavenator? Well, one does not always have such a unique fossil so handy, and for free. Furthermore, the usual home of the Concavenator does not allow pictures. And lastly, I’m a nerd. The species Concavenator corcovatus was described in 2010 by Francisco Ortega, Fernando Escaso, and José Luis Sanz from a single skeleton found at Las Hoyas site in 2003. The specimen was officially catalogued as MCCM-LH 6666. The animal was a medium-sized carcharodontosaurid. Carcharodontosauria, which included the likes of Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus or Carcharodontosaurus, were a group of large theropods from the Cretaceous period. The skeleton was almost complete, with the tail and neck contorted in rigor mortis. The fossil shows two things that make it special – a hump or sail created by the spines of the back vertebrae, and the fact that some pigments were found on the fossil. Not unique but rare enough findings include impressions of skin and scales, and smaller bones in the belly area, rests of undigested dinner. On the arm bones there are insertions for ligaments similar to those that modern birds have at the insertion of feathers.

The Concavenator lived around 125 million years ago, in an area of wetlands. Its teeth, general shape (it walked on its two hindlegs and had small-ish arms), along with the remains of animals that it had eaten, tell us it was a carnivore, and its placement in the carcharodontosaurid family, that it was a predator. However, no large predator is known for rejecting a good scavenging feed. The spikes or hump on its back, above the hips, can be clearly seen on the fossil, but nobody has any idea of what it was for – speculations have been made for communication means, fat deposits and thermoregulation. When alive, the animal would have been around 5 metres long, two metres tall, and 450 kilograms heavy.

All that to end up being dug up and named… Pepito, which is the diminutive of the diminutive of the Spanish version of Joseph. The equivalent of Joseph would be José, nicknamed Pepe, and changing the last “e” into “ito” – the suffix for small – would yield to something like Joey. So this magnificent predator was either named after a mini-mini-Joseph, or a small meat sandwich, which is also referred to as a pepito. Seriously, what happened to the illustrious tradition of Boaty McBoatface? This would have been a glorious Toothy McToothface (“Spanishised” as Dientito Caradientez or something).

Anyway, after the visit I dropped by the museum shop to buy myself some Concavenator-related merchandise. When was there the first time, I bought the exhibition catalogue, but since then they had received some silly cute items – I bought a pin, a badge, and a magnet, just because I could. Maybe as the exhibit draws closer to the end there will be discounts on other things…

I left the museum and decided that since it was way past 14:00, I should grab a bite to eat. As I had parked my car next to a shopping centre, I headed there with the idea of some Asian food. However, there is a burger joint that usually has a long queue and that some friends had told me was really good – as good as fast food can be, I guess. It is called TGB – The Good Burger. It is supposed to serve “NYC style gourmet hamburgers”. The place was empty, so I decided to give it a try.

I ordered a “Cheese Lovers” burger, which consisted of a beef patty, American cheese, goat cheese, Gorgonzola, sautéed onions, arugula and honey mustard sauce. It was… very cheesy. It was nice, but nothing I feel I must try again, especially when there are cheaper options in the shopping centre. And sushi. But at least, I satisfied my curiosity before I went off towards all my dull, grown-up errands which I shall not bore you with…