The largest Museum-Park in Europe devoted to dinosaurs in the middle of an outstanding paleontological site. An extraordinary voyage in time.
In March 1996, prospecting amongst the rocky outcrops on the Mèze plain that date from the Mesozoic Era, more precisely from the Upper Cretaceous (65 million years ago), Alain Cabot discovered a great many dinosaur nests with one of the world’s largest collections of eggs laid by several species of dinosaur.
The discovery helped show that there was a continuity between the sites previously discovered in French Provence and the Pyrenees. During the Cretaceous Period, southern Europe was an archipelago lying much nearer the equator than it is today. The area around Mèze was a vast tropical plain cut by large rivers where herds and flocks of dinosaurs came to lay their eggs.
The layers of rock forming the plain, running from Mèze to Montagnac, had been forced up long after they were originally formed as a consequence of the Pyrenean uplift. The rocks date from the Campanian-Maastrichtian (72 to 65 million years ago) and Danian (65 to 53 million years ago) Stages at the end of the Cretaceous Period, being fossilised during the transition from the Mesozoic to the Tertiary Eras, just at the moment dinosaurs became extinct.
The paleontological site is one of the most important in Europe. The scientific discoveries there are proving to be of the greatest importance in the reconstitution of the fauna of the ecosystems 70 millions years ago.
Discover the largest complete skeleton in the world in the Mèze Dinosaur Museum-Park. The Brachiosaurus was one of the largest dinosaurs, some 80 ft long and weighing 50 tons. Distinctive sign: it was the only dinosaur whose front legs were longer than its back legs.
The Museum is open every day of the year except December 24, 25 and 31 and January 1.
Text quoted from Musée – Parc des Dinosaures website.Image copyright Musée – Parc des Dinosaures.
