The small municipality of Fuentes, about 20 kilometers from Cuenca, would never have imagined becoming a world protagonist thanks to an unexpected discovery during the AVE works on the Madrid-Levante sectionIn 2007, the equipment was shut down due to the discovery of thousands of dinosaur bones buried in the ground.
To the surprise and fascination of paleontologists, as well as other workers outside the sector, experts were able to uncover one of the most important sites in Europe for the Upper Cretaceous study: The Hollow.
Thanks to this work, a new species of dinosaur was revealed: the Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra, a titanosaur 20 meters long and weighing 15 tons, it lived in our country about 73 million years ago.
The name chosen for this sauropod is a tribute to the history and culture of the province of Cuenca. The term “Qunka” comes from the Spanish-Arabic name of the region before the Christian conquest by Alfonso VIII. “Saura” refers to the famous Spanish painter Antonio Saura, known for his artistic connection with the region and who made reference to dinosaurs in his work. Finally, “pintiquiniestra” refers to a character from chivalric novels that appears in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, a nod to classical Spanish literature.
The discovery of Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra not only expands knowledge about dinosaurs from this geological timescale in Europe, belonging to the Mesozoic era, but also puts Cuenca on the map as a epicenter of paleontological study.
The global importance of the Spanish site
The Lo Hueco site, located in this small town of Fuentes, in Cuenca, has proven to be a paleontological treasure. Francisco Ortega, director of the project, says: “We have extracted a brutal collection of material. About a hundred people have participated and in six months of excavations we have done more work than in a normal academic situation. it would have taken 50 years“.
The discovery of this birth has led to the discovery of more than 12,000 fossils, among which two unprecedented species of dinosaurs have already been described: Lohuecotitan pandafilandi, in 2015 and now Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra, in 2024.
Paleontologist working on the discovery of a new dinosaur.
This latest dinosaur discovered lived about 73 million years agoin the Late Cretaceous, on what was then the coast of the Tethys Sea, a setting full of vegetation and fauna. Ortega explains that sauropods like Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra “were part of herds of giant herbivores that devastated the vegetation of the banks.”
The Lo Hueco site is an inexhaustible source of information. As Ortega points out, work is already underway on the description of another species of sauropod, which highlights the importance of this area for paleontology. In addition, the Paleontological Museum of Castilla-La Mancha, in Cuenca, houses some remains of Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra, allowing visitors to see one of the key pieces of European natural history up close.
“The Hollow is without a doubt the largest deposit in Europe from this period, with more than 12,000 bones discovered,” the experts point out. The possibility of continuing to discover new species and unravel the mysteries of the fauna of the European Upper Cretaceous is an increasingly tangible reality.
The most complete copy
The discovery of this titanosaur is distinguished by its one of the most complete skeletons found in Europewith elements such as cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae in an exceptional state of preservation.
Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra, in addition to adding a new species to the list of European titanosaurs, also allows us to better understand the evolutionary history of these surprising beings that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago.
Pedro Mocho, a researcher at the University of Lisbon and lead author of the study, emphasizes that the discovery is crucial: “Qunkasaura is the most complete specimen of a titanosaur sauropod found in Europe. It adds a lot of information, allowing us to formulate new hypotheses about how this group of dinosaurs evolved in Europe 70 million years ago.
Digging up the fossil remains of a dinosaur.
Cuenca, which a priori did not present a great paleontological interest, it is positioned today as a key province for the study of European dinosaurs. “Finding this important collection of fossils was a great surprise,” says Ortega, adding that there was no previous sign of a site in this area of the Iberian mountains.
A catastrophic extinction
One of the most fascinating aspects of this discovery is the hypothesis about the death of these dinosaurs. According to Ortega, “all these animals died at the same time as a result of a catastrophic event; a storm or a large flood caused a mudslide under which their skeletons were buried in different positions.”
This fatal outcome not only buried Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra, but also other sauropods such as Lohuecotitan pandafilandi. Although belonging to different families of dinosaurs, these giants lived in the same ecosystem and succumbed together under a mass of mud that still preserves their remains today.
