8. PALAEONTOLOGICAL SITES OF MADRID

One can literally walk over fossils, they are in such abundance. The Madrid region offers many diverse palaeontological sites, some of which are unique in the world.

Although construction and other human activities destroy fossils and sites, since 1985 Spanish legislation has expressly protected archaeological and palaeontological heritage, requiring the control and monitoring of public and private works.

Thus, major urban development projects in recent decades have improved our understanding of the palaeontological past in the Madrid region. The Green Railway Corridor, construction work at Barajas Airport, and the tunnelling of the M-30 motorway (the longest of European urban motorway tunnels) greatly affected the ancient terraces of the Manzanares River and its surroundings: an area of great archaeological and palaeontological value, which was declared a Site of Cultural Interest with the category of Archaeological Zone in 1993.

M30 construction
Excavation during the M-30 construction works motorway (2006). Marqués de Monistrol-Casa de Campo section.
Image: Paleoymás

The works carried out on the M-30 motorway, and the associated sanitation projects, between 2004 and 2007, involved the widening and burying of several kilometres of this road. Palaeontological monitoring, with sediment screening for small mammals and, occasionally, emergency excavations of new relevant sites, represented a particularly valuable period for expanding our knowledge of the geology and palaeontology of Madrid.

Main palaeontological sites in the Madrid region.

Landscape of the region about 14 million years ago (this reconstruction is based on the Hydroelectric Power Plant site, Madrid)
Illustration: M. Antón