Over 100 pterosaur fossils discovered in Spain's Teruel province

In March 2026, a team of researchers from the Teruel-Dinópolis Paleontological Foundation announced the discovery of over a hundred pterosaur fossils at the El Pozo site in Spain's Teruel province. This find, located in the municipality of El Castellar in the Aragon region, represents a breakthrough in the study of prehistoric flying reptiles on the Iberian Peninsula. Excavation work allowed for the recovery of numerous skeletal fragments, shedding new light on the biodiversity of this area in the distant past. The discovery is all the more significant because the remains of these animals are extremely rarely preserved in the fossil record due to their specific anatomical structure. Pterosaurs dominated the skies for millions of years, but their delicate bones were often destroyed before the process of fossilization.

The extracted fossils date from the Late Jurassic period and include a wide range of anatomical elements. Scientists have identified among them jaw fragments, vertebrae, humerus bones, wing phalanges, and coracoid bones. Such a rich collection of bone material in one place is exceptional, as paleontologists typically find only individual, heavily damaged fragments. The El Pozo site has thus become the first location in the central-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula to provide such solid evidence of the presence of these reptiles in this specific time interval. The fossil record of pterosaurs from the Late Jurassic on the Iberian Peninsula had been extremely poor, limited to few and uncertain finds. The Aragon region, and particularly Teruel province, has been considered one of the most important paleontological areas in Europe since the 1990s, mainly due to the activities of the Dinópolis park and foundation. Previous discoveries in this region primarily concerned land dinosaurs, such as giant sauropods.

Experts emphasize that the uniqueness of the find stems from the fragility of the research material, as pterosaur bones were hollow and very light, which facilitated their flight but drastically reduced their chances of surviving millions of years under layers of sediment. The Teruel-Dinópolis Paleontological Foundation, which manages the research, points to El Pozo as a key point on the world paleontology map. This discovery allows for a more accurate reconstruction of the ecosystem that existed in present-day Spain at the end of the Jurassic. Representatives of the foundation highlight the importance of this find for regional science. „El Pozo representa la primera evidencia sólida de pterosaurios jurásicos en el centro-este peninsular” (El Pozo represents the first solid evidence of Jurassic pterosaurs in the central-eastern part of the peninsula) — Dinópolis representatives via El Mundo Identified skeletal elements at El Pozo: 1. Fragmenty czaszki — present; 2. Elementy osiowe — present; 3. Kończyny przednie — present; 4. Obręcz barkowa — present