Museo Jurásico Asturias
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Permanent exposition

Introduction to the Asturian Jurassic Room

Sala de introducción al Jurásico Asturiano

The most spectacular outcrops with Jurassic rocks in the region extend practically continuously from Gijón to Ribadesella, in what is known as “The Dinosaur Coast”.

The rocks are separated into groups called formations. Their graphical representation, ordered vertically from oldest to most recent, is known as a stratigraphic column. Each Formation receives its name from the place or geographical feature closest to the place where these rocks show the best conditions for their study; in the case of the Asturian Jurassic, they would be Gijón, Rodiles, Vega, Tereñes and Lastres.

The distribution of lands and seas during the Lower and Upper Jurassic, as well as the location of Asturias at that time, can be observed in one of the backlighted panels in this room. At the beginning of the Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangea started to separate and the first seaways of water between the North American and Eurasian continents opened up which were the beginnings of the current Atlantic Ocean.

The continuous paleogeographical changes that took place in the region throughout the 56 million years that the Jurassic lasted led to the alternation of stages in which Asturias was covered by the sea, rich in fossils of invertebrates and sea reptiles, and others in which the retreat of the sea gave way to terrestrial and coastal ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and fishes. At that time, the indisputable rulers of the sky were the flying reptiles (pterosaurs).

Did you know that the collection of dinosaur footprints in the MUJA is the best collection in Europe and the third worldwide in a museum? This is not only due to the excellent state of preservation of many of them, but also to their diversity and the high number of specimens collected. In this room, you can also contemplate several exceptional pieces from the Asturian Jurassic vertebrates (dinosaurs and other reptiles) as well as invertebrates.

 

 

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