Ruta de los Dinosaurios de Cuenca 💖 Museo Paleontológico y Yacimientos ✈️ #Cuenca

In Cuenca, we have some of the most important dinosaur fossil sites in Europe: Las Hoyas-La Cierva and Lo Hueco-Fuentes. 🐱‍🐉 In addition to these two sites, there's the Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha, located in the city of Cuenca. In this video, we'll visit the highlights. I'll provide you with updated information as of summer 2024, which can serve as a guide and help you avoid the disappointment of finding the sites closed. You can also find all the information on the LosViajeros forum: https://www.losviajeros.com/foros.php... ✈️ Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha (MUPA) Let's start with the star of this route: the exceptional Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha. As a dinosaur museum, it's an alternative to #Dinopolis, but closer to Madrid. This museum represents a significant financial investment, bringing together invaluable pieces from across Castilla-La Mancha in a unique building. The bulk of its collection comes from the province of Cuenca, a European powerhouse for large dinosaur fossils, as well as other fossils. However, it also boasts magnificent pieces from other provinces of Castilla-La Mancha, especially Ciudad Real and Guadalajara. The location of the modern building is stunning. It offers exceptional views over the city of Cuenca and a vast garden that recreates the habitat of dinosaurs. The garden features dinosaur replicas and can be visited free of charge. The museum's interior is very well structured, with numerous well-explained rooms, all showcasing magnificent examples from fossil sites within the region. Two of its rooms are dedicated exclusively to two of the most important fossil sites in Europe: Las Hoyas and Lo Hueco. These two sites are yielding a huge number of fossils of giant dinosaurs, some of them unique and previously unknown species. But they're not only finding large dinosaurs, but also other reptiles and birds. A visit to the garden and ponds decorated with dinosaur replicas, always with the city in the background, can take between half an hour and an hour. There is ample free parking within the museum complex itself. The Las Hoyas-La Cierva Site This site is of enormous importance at a European level in terms of the discovery of large dinosaur fossils. However, its interpretation center, located in Cañada del Hoyo, seems to be never open, much to the frustration of visitors, who make their indignation clear in their reviews of the attraction. The Lo Hueco Site in Fuentes and its Interpretation Center Fuentes is a town about 15 km from the city of Cuenca, on the road to Teruel, therefore in the heart of the dinosaur fossil area. Apparently, the site was formed in the Mesozoic Era by a massive flood that deposited the bodies of large dinosaurs, as well as other species, in a ravine. In 2007, during the earthworks necessary for the construction of the AVE high-speed rail line from Madrid to Valencia in the Los Huecos area, fossils of large bones began to emerge... They had inadvertently discovered one of the most important titanosaur sites—that is, sites of large dinosaurs—in all of Europe. This site has yielded not only dinosaurs but also turtles, crocodiles, birds, mollusks, and more. Furthermore, many of the species were previously unknown. What visitors see in Fuentes is only its interpretation center, consisting of two rooms, which houses some original artifacts and, above all, numerous photographs and explanations of the sites. The site, located on both sides of the railway line, continues to be excavated today with exceptional results. The latest discovery was announced just a few days ago: a new titanosaur called Qunkasaura Pintiquiniestra, which could measure up to 20 meters long and weighed more than 15 tons. The name Qunka comes from Cuenca, Spain. Hopefully, this interpretation center will remain open, although it would need some funding for renovations. But at least they should invest a few euros in putting up a sign to make it visible from the street. #CuencaDinosaurRoute #CuencaDinosaurRoute #CuencaRoutes #Cuenca #MUPACuenca #MUPA #CastillaLaManchaPaleontologicalMuseum #DinosaurRoute #LoHueco #LoHuecoField #LasHoyasField #Fossils #Dinosaurs #CuencaMuseums #FuentesFieldCuenca #FossilsInCuenca #DinosaursInCuenca 00:00 Cuenca Dinosaur Route 01:08 Castilla-La Mancha Paleontological Museum 04:20 Las Hoyas Site 05:21 Lo Hueco-Fuentes Site 08:30 Dinosaur Route Summary