Spectacular sauropod footprints, part of the “Dinoturbation” at the locality of Orcau, near Tremp.

After the success of Hatching the Past in Coll de Nargó, Peter Norton moved the exhibition to the lavish surroundings of the exquisite Espai Cultural of Sabadell (nearby Barcelona). This venue has enhanced the effect of the exhibition to an extent that is seldom achieved.  So everybody was real pleased. The exhibition continues until the 11 of January. So far, the daily attendance has been without precedent in Sabadell! Here Angel Galobart and myself are giving an opening tour to the media communicators and authorities of Sabadell.
The event was well documented and the opening was massively attended. I even managed  to give a talk at L’ Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont .

And if all that was not enough, two weeks later I had to give another talk and attend the important meeting “Reconstructing the Terrestrial End-Cretaceous Paleo environments in Europe” at the city of Tremp. The contingent of attendants was quite international and included Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia, David  Fastovsky and Steve Brusatte (all held important talks). Of course it was an opportunity for the world to know  Catalan researchers like Josep Marmi and  Albert G. Selles, participants as speakers and authors of papers and posters.

The talks and posters(mostly about the Geology of the paleoenvironments in Catalonia) were accompanied with exhaustive field trips under the wise guidance of Oriol Oms and Bernat Vila, among others.

At the Museu de la Conca Della at Isona, I found these two jewels to illustrate  how fast the image of the dinosaur has been changing all these years… the zone is famous for its many discoveries of mid-sized to small island-bound Lambeosaur remains. Compare  the excellent modern reconstruction by Ramón López (following instructions by Fabio Dalla Vecchia, Bernat Vila, Rodrigo Gaete and Angel Galobart), with…well, the past… a past that definitively had a sense of honour at least.!

Angel is showing us here some of the hadrosaur remains in the crypt of the museum with Novella, Francesco, Victor and myself.

Nano-lambeosaurs…Perfect small counterparts from the ancient Cretaceous European archipelago  of their continental giant equivalents! I fell in love with  this sculpture… extremely vivid… pretty impressive!

Needless we were having a really good time with the gang of paleo-people… my services were required to illustrate what the field trip, Tremp and the spectacular surroundings were all about. Albert and Bernat hold the canvas!
But for me an epiphanic moment came when we arrived to the spectacular dinoturbation at Orcau. Yet another fantastic footprint site… and, unlike the even more spectacular, but distant footprints in the steep cliffs of of Fumanya, these are perfect to feel the closeness of the dinosaurs. It feels as if they were still walking by somewhere near!

The main event for me was the talk of Reviviendo Dinosaurios at the Council House of Tremp, that also hosted an inventive small, well presented and above all well printed selection of Paleoart, organised by Angel Galobart.


These traditional, vintage,  giant puppets “Els Gigants” are typical Catalonian and  take part in many Major Feasts of the village. There were also giant heads… we did feel quite at home there!

A highlight of  my visit  was the meeting with these two excellent Paleoart Catalonian budding stars… the sisters Aina  and Agnes Amblas Canals.

The talk was presented by Angel and the Councillor Silvia Romero, and was attended by a good number of members of the public. My aim is to make people aware and understand  the constant recent changes in the look of the Dinosauria.  Its a trip through the ages of dinosaur iconography, my role in it, and how prejudice has been many times a deterrent of the progress of science in the understanding of the Dinosaur,,, Even if I don’t feel myself a truly “professional ” speaker, with such attentive audience I was well rewarded. The feedback was excellent and I learned much here.

And yes… the end had to be party time and an excellent dinner!Here I am with the star organisers: Oriol Oms, Angel Galobart, Bernat Vila and Josep Marmi … for some reason Soledad de Esteban Trivigno was not in this picture, but surely she deserved to be  too… she was the “mother” organiser for all of us!

 And if that wasn’t enough…the dinner was complemented with extraordinary rosemary ice-cream toppled with choco-dinosaurs and  by the spectacular antics of Antoine Bercovici, who showed us his very famous and remarkable Microraptor tattoos! Art and pain in the name of science! Check it out  at http://inspiredtattooportraits.com/portrait-3-antoine-english/

We would like to thank the professionalism, generosity and hospitality of our hosts, especially Angel Galobart, Soledad de Esteban Trivigno, Oriol Oms, Josep Marmi, Bernat Vila, Albert G. Selles, Víctor Fondevilla, Novella Razzolini and Pere Anadon.