Morella, in Castellón, premieres at the Gin Factory are new laboratory for the treatment, analysis and cataloging of remains of dinosaurs. And milestone for the history of local paleontological research, since the experts claimed this type of installation Since more than 30 years. And it is that, just to begin with, they have pending an analysis of around 6,000 fossils discovered in the area.
This Monday was the coming-out of the space, which has been achieved thanks to the promotion of the Valencian Institute of Conservation, Restoration and Research (IVCR+i) and the City Council of the capital of Els Ports, through a grant from the European program Epriex, managed by Labora. Rafael Martínez Valle, head of section of the IVCR+i, remarked that “Morella is an international benchmark in terms of paleontological heritage and we think that a laboratory like this for analysis and cataloging should be in the territory And that’s why this location was chosen.”
Another argument in favor of this infrastructure is the creation of jobs to face the fight against depopulation. “We have hired four people with training in the field to carry out these specialized actions“said Martinez.
The tasks ahead are “titanic” given the large corpus of samples that there are to deal with. In this sense, the paleontologist from Morella pronounces, José Miguel Gasullaalso a worker for Arcillas Vega del Moll, a company that exploits the mines in the area, and will be the one who will supervise the actions of the restorers.
Likewise, the expert emphasizes that “It will bear fruit in two ways, since, on the one hand, it will help us to continue investigating and better understand our heritage”, an extreme that, as he anticipated, “will soon allow for important developments in the international arena.” In this regard, he assured that the investigations carried out over the years, “Soon it will allow us to discover new species of dinosaurs that lived in the area.”
The other aspect that Gasulla emphasized is that, after the cataloging and preparation of the bones, the procedures for their exhibition will be made easier and more flexible: “As we have the fossils, we will be able to show them. The residents of Els Ports and visitors are still unaware of most of the paleontological treasure that we have.”
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For his part, the mayor of Morella, Rhamsés Ripollés, highlighted the opportunities that open up: “We have four new jobs, what do they mean? set people in the municipality and other localities of the region“. He also highlighted that “this laboratory It comes after a claim of more than three decades. Our heritage must be analyzed and valued in situ and this space is the most suitable for it”.
“We have one golden opportunity to act on the remains with a trained, specialized team and bringing together the experience of Vega del Moll with the new restorers. I hope this is just the beginning of a promising future and not a one-year project“, as Gasulla concluded.