“The fossil of a dinosaur skeleton, one of the oldest in Portugal, was extracted from the limestone of the Lower Jurassic, from Água de Madeiros beach, last week, and was received in the specialized laboratory of the Lourinhã Museum, where the work of its preparation and conservation is taking place”, indicates the municipality, in a statement.

In the note, the municipality, led by Aurélio Ferreira, says that the excavation of the fossilized skeleton was carried out by the team of paleontologists from the Lourinhã Museum and by the services of the Municipality of Marinha Grande, in accordance with the guidelines of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).

The task, he says, “was very challenging because it was conditioned by the tides, sea conditions and difficult access to machines capable of transporting the block of rock with fossilized bones weighing around 1,200 kilos and which technicians estimate to be more than 190 million years old.”

The municipality of Marinha Grande, in the district of Leiria, collected and transported the fossil find with the support of the City Council and the Lourinhã Museum, which welcomed the fossil for conservation.

“The discovery will later be studied by an international team of scientists led by the Lourinhã Museum and the results of the research will be published in Marinha Grande”, reads the note.

According to the municipality, the dinosaur bones were discovered in 2024, by the Lourinhã Museum team, and were in an area of ​​the beach under the daily influence of waves, “strongly affected by winter storms, having required an emergency excavation”.

The discovery is the result of several prospecting works in this area that have been carried out since 2021, through a partnership between the municipality of Marinha Grande and the Lourinhã museum, for research and safeguarding the municipality's paleontological heritage.