A Jurassic treasure in Teruel: the best-preserved stegosaurus skull in Europe, at Dinópolis

The Aragonese Museum of Paleontology, located in the Dinópolis Paleontological Park (Teruel), has added to its exhibition the most complete stegosaurus skull discovered to date in Europe. This is an exceptional fossil of the Dacentrurus armatus species, accompanied by a cervical vertebra from the same adult specimen.

The discovery was made at the “Están de Colón” site, in the Teruel municipality of Riodeva, and its study has just been published in the international scientific journal Vertebrate Zoology by researchers from the Teruel-Dinópolis Paleontological Complex Foundation.

Dinosaur skulls are extremely rare due to their fragility, so this specimen provides crucial information on the cranial anatomy of Dacentrurus armatus and advances our understanding of stegosaur evolution globally. Thanks to this study, paleontologists have proposed a new group within this dinosaur lineage: Neostegosauria.

The museum’s new exhibits also include remains of the holotype of Oblitosaurus bunnueli, another dinosaur described from fossils found in Riodeva. With these discoveries, the province of Teruel has established itself as an international benchmark in paleontological research.