Visitors can accompany this scientific work in real-time. A rare, extraordinary opportunity to understand the life and time of these dinosaurs.

The Plateosaurus is one of the first dinosaurs in Europe, with over 200 million years of age, and that survived the Triassic period in Central Europe, Germany and Switzerland. It’s considered an ancestor of sauropods, the giant dinosaurs with long necks and tails which appeared later in the Jurassic, and whose fossils are abundant in Lourinhã. The Plateosaurus had a size that varied between five and eight metres with larger examples having possibly reached 10m.

The arrival of these fossils to Dino Parque in Lourinhã is proof of the growing application of financial and human resources on the part of the park, an important contribution to the development and affirmation of science, solidifying Portuguese palaeontology worldwide.

According to Simão Mateus, scientific director of Dino Parque Lourinhã, “This is a project that brings to Portugal unique fossils, and we hope to count with some of our volunteers and masters’ students. We want the community to help us prepare fossils, mount them for exhibition and contribute to make new forms of paleoart.

The Dino Parque lab allows visitors to see the work of palaeontologists live, in the place the fossils are prepared and studied. This research process will take some two years to start bearing fruit when an exhibition will be mounted for these fossils in Portugal.

Dino Parque Lourinhã, as a fruit of their hard work in palaeontology, has developed collaboration projects with various national and international institutions, from museums, foreign dinosaur parks and universities. In this specific project the Frick Sauriermuseum (Switzerland), Dino Park Münchehagen (Germany), GEAL – Lourinhã Museum, the New Lisbon University and the Aveiro University are represented.

It's to note that Dino Parque Lourinhã has already received 1,150,000 visitors since opening.

Dino Parque Lourinhã opens to the public from 10am to 7pm, with the last entry at 5:30pm. More information can be found on www.dinoparque.pt, through their email address geral@dinoparque.pt, or by their phone number, 261 243 160.

Being the biggest open-air themed exhibition in Europe, with 10 acres, Dino Parque Lourinhã is composed of six different courses that allow visitors to observe almost 200 live-scale dinosaur species, as well as animals that lived on Earth 450 million years ago.

Recognised with various trophies, among them the Regions 5 Stars Award in the Theme Parks category for the 5th year running, and the distinction of Travellers Choice Awards on Trip Advisor for the 3rd year in a row, it was a finalist in the National Tourism Award in 2022 in the Sustainable Tourism category, and recently won the Best Theme Park Award in 2022 at the 1st edition of the Odisseias Awards.