La Rioja Turismo

Over 120 million years’ ago, dinosaurs inhabited the area that is now La Rioja. In the seventies, scientific research discovered the significance of the fossilised footprints or ichnites appearing on the rocks there.

From that time onwards, the excavations made and paleontological research carried out have enabled us to discover more about the way of life of these enormous reptiles who inhabited an environment in sharp contrast to the one we live in today.

During the Jurassic period, the Tethys sea, which covered the greatest part of Europe, penetrated up what today is known as the Ebro Valley. It was the period during which the continents were separating.  During the Cretaceous Period, the part of La Rioja occupied by the Cameros basin, in the Iregua, Leza, Cidacos and Alhama river valleys, formed an extensive delta at the river mouth. The dinosaurs inhabited this waterlogged, vegetation-rich plain.