Welcome to Galve, land of dinosaurs!
Today I propose you a different outing suitable for all audiences where, with some Earthcaches of the area, you can travel through millions of years and see how the inhabitants that populated the earth during the Jurassic and Cretaceous lived.
Galve is a privileged place by the rocks that form its territory, formed in coastal and inland environments of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous, contain an important fossil record of continental vertebrates (for quantity, quality and diversity), which faithfully illustrates terrestrial ecosystems of that moment in the history of the Earth and makes of Galve one of the most appreciated and recognized paleontological site of Europe.
Along with footprints, eggs and fossil bones of dinosaur, remains of flying reptiles, amphibians, fish, plants and even mammals have been found in Galve.
The Paleontological Parkof Galve, created in 1993, is composed of the Municipal Paleontological Museum, the ichnite sites, models of dinosaurs and the recently joined Legendark.
The Igunaodon
Found in Galve, the Iguanodon (iguana tooth) is a type of ornitópodos iguanodontids dinosaur who lived in the early Cretaceous period about approximately 130 to 120 million years ago, between the Berriasiense and the Aptian in what is now Europe.
¡A lot of species of Iguanodon have been described, dating from the Kimmeridgian, late Jurassic to Cenomanian Upper Cretaceous in Asia, Europe, and North America. However, since the first decade of the century we tend to recognize a single species, the Iguanodon bernissartensis, who lived in the Lower Cretaceous of Europe.
In the 80s and since the beginning of the 90s, the Universities of Madrid and Zaragoza have studied the dinosaurs of Galve to safeguard, protect and publicize this valuable Aragonese heritage so popular in recent years.
Classification
Iguanodon gives its name to the branch not rated of Iguanodontia, a very populous group of ornithopods with many known species of the Middle Jurassic to Cretaceous. Of this group, Iguanodon is the best known.
Where is it located?
Much of the Iguanodon fossils have been discovered in the clay mines of Galve. More specifically, in June 2015, it was discovered in the same place a new species of Iguanodon with more than 1100 bones of hatchlings in the site of San Cristobal 2. The new species is called Iguanodon Galvensis and is the new fifth dinosaur species found in Galve and tenth in the province of Teruel.
Life style
Iguanodon, because of their size and abundance, are considered an herbivore of medium size, although it is unknown exactly what Iguanodon ate with its robust jaws. Some authors like David Norman, have suggested that their diet could be based on horsetails, cycads and conifers; Iguanodon size bernissartensis allowed him to reach the foliage of trees up to four or five meters high.
The concept of this Earthcache is that the geocacher to knows this dinosaur and that he enjoys this incredible place. I could explain more about the subject but I like my Earthcaches to be brief and concise so visitors leave the place having learned something new. Enjoy it!
At the indicated coordinates, you can find an infoboard, to validate your log, please send me the answers to the following questions. You can log without waiting for my reply, if a problem occurs we will try to find a solution together.
Log this cache as a "found it" and send me your answers via my profile or via message on geocaching.com, and I will contact you in case of problem.
The Iguanodon in front of you is a life-size replica. Knowing this, answer the next questions.
1-. Could you tell me the diameter of its hind legs?
2-. In the information panel, what number is the femur?
3-. If the replica Iguanodon stood up on its hind legs, would it get to the tree next to it?