Our province and its prehistoric park
In this wonderful park located in Villa Sanagasta you will find eight dinosaur sculptures with their distinctive and bright colors to a 1:1 scale where they offer a detailed explanation of the park at its beginning as well as the prehistoric animals that used to live there; you can also see their rare nests in which those creatures brooded their eggs for long periods of time.
This place is frequently visited due to its paleontological relevance and its great touristic value, especially good for visiting with family and friends.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR DINOSAUR’S HISTORY?
The geological park was created in the year 2001 after a group of researchers found an important paleontological site formed by eggs and dinosaur’s eggs that used this zone as a “nursery”.
This small park has a little less than 850 hectares and has two areas clearly defined by their topology; the first one is a deep reddish valley where there are dinosaur sculptures close to their real size painted with car paint and that’s where the guided visit takes you. The other area is located on top of the ravine and it’s an area of sediment mainly formed by sandstone, that’s where scientifics found the nests and eggs at a depth of nearly 1,5 meters. The valley, as far as we know, has no fossils because it is previous to the dinosaur era and the muddy ground of that time doesn't preserve fossils well.
The sediments from the top of the ravine date back to 145 millions of years from the cretacic period, researchers found nests belonging to the argentinosaurus, originally discovered in Neuquén and became one of the biggest dinosaurs to step on Earth.This dinosaur would leave their eggs on its nest and once they hatched, the hatchlings would have to survive by themselves until they could join a new group of their same species. Another dinosaur that you’ll get told about is the abelisaurus.This one lived by the end of the cretacic period, around 80 to 83 millions of years ago. It is named like that in honor to the man who found it: Roberto Abel, who did the discover in Patagonia, a place home to many species that usually migrated to what today is La Rioja, after all the path they had to follow was very flat and with not many mountains unlike today. The abelisaurus had a big skull and a long neck as well as very small arms whose utility is still a debate. It was also carnivorous and shared many morphological similarities with the carnotaurus, much bigger.
About the facilities in this park, this one is very well equipped. There are toilets for both genders, it is adapted so that the smaller ones from the family can enjoy the walk, there is also a parking lot and right next to it you’ll find chairs for resting, a small souvenir shop, a small cafe and viewpoints looking towards the valley and the mountains of Sanagasta.
The good infrastructure can be found all over the park, with platforms that work as viewpoints, chairs, railings for more safety and a clear path.
The fee for entering is only $1.000 ARS making it accessible for everyone and thus this park is without a doubt one of the best touristic attractions that La Rioja has to offer.
OUR THOUGHTS ON THIS PARK
This beautiful experience is simply amazing. The park gives us a great dive into prehistory and lets us immerse in the most ancient and mysterious periods of the Earth. We learn a lot about the life and extinction of these wonderful creatures. This place makes us feel respect towards these ancient reptiles and, at the same time, it triggers our curiosity and motivates us to know more about the world that is around us.
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