Until this discovery, confirmed Diplodocus fossils were known only from the Morrison Formation of the western United States.
The remains—14 tail vertebrae and several chevron bones—were recovered near El Castellar in Teruel, Spain.
They belonged to an animal roughly 25 metres long that lived about 150 million years ago.
This is a terrific story because the fossils do more than place a familiar dinosaur somewhere new. They suggest that dinosaurs travelled between North America and Europe while the young Atlantic Ocean was opening, possibly crossing temporary land bridges during periods of lower sea level.
For more than a century, Diplodocus appeared to be a thoroughly North American dinosaur.
Its fossils were known from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States, where these wonderfully long-necked herbivores wandered across ancient floodplains alongside Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and other familiar Jurassic giants.
Now, Diplodocus has turned up somewhere entirely unexpected: Spain.
Palaeontologists from the Fundación Dinópolis identified 14 exceptionally well-preserved tail vertebrae and several chevron bones from the La Tejería fossil site near El Castellar in Teruel. The bones are about 150 million years old and represent the first confirmed Diplodocus discovered outside North America.
The Spanish animal was no dainty traveller. Researchers estimate that it reached approximately 25 metres in length—about the length of two city buses parked end to end. Most of that impressive silhouette consisted of an extraordinarily long neck and an even longer, whip-like tail, balanced around a comparatively compact body and remarkably small head.
The fossil was identified through distinctive features in its tail bones. These included elongated vertebral centra, large air-filled cavities within the vertebrae, deep grooves along their undersides and forked chevrons.
Chevrons are bones attached beneath the tail vertebrae that helped protect blood vessels while providing anchoring points for muscles. Together, these anatomical clues placed the Spanish specimen firmly within the genus Diplodocus and close to the North American species Diplodocus hallorum.
Its presence in Spain raises a delicious prehistoric question: how did a dinosaur associated with the American West reach Jurassic Europe?
It did not swim across the modern Atlantic—and frankly, a 25-metre sauropod doing the dog paddle would have been memorable. During the Late Jurassic, the Atlantic Ocean was only beginning to open as the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart.
North America and Europe were much closer together, and changes in sea level may occasionally have exposed islands or temporary land connections. These routes could have allowed dinosaurs to move between the continents in stages.
The discovery supports growing evidence of faunal exchange between North America and the Iberian Peninsula.
Dinosaurs with close North American connections, including stegosaurs and large theropods, have also been discovered in Portugal and Spain. Iberia may have acted as an important gateway between ancient continents while the young Atlantic widened around it.
The new specimen also adds to the remarkable collection of giant sauropods known from Teruel. These included Turiasaurus, a massive European sauropod belonging to a very different evolutionary branch, and Losillasaurus, another enormous long-necked herbivore.
Late Jurassic Spain was evidently not short of giants—or of the vegetation required to keep them fed.
This discovery does not yet tell us whether the Spanish animal belonged to a known species of Diplodocus or represents one that is new to science. More fossils will be needed before researchers can answer that question. The bones nevertheless demonstrate something extraordinary: Diplodocus was not confined to North America after all.
Its enormous feet once touched European soil, and its tail stretched across more than a landscape. It reached across our assumptions about how Jurassic dinosaurs travelled, dispersed and responded to a planet whose continents were slowly becoming worlds apart.
The research was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on September 15, 2026.
The original fossils are now displayed at the Museo Aragonés de Paleontología in Dinópolis, Teruel.
If you're planning a visit, Teruel is about:
- 145 km northwest of Valencia
- 180 km south of Zaragoza
- 300 km east of Madrid
Valencia is the nearest major international city and the most convenient reference point for travelers. It is off the beaten track but worth the trip.
The research was published on September 15, 2026, making it wonderfully fresh. It gives us giant dinosaurs, continental drift, prehistoric migration and a splendid tail—all excellent ingredients for a tasty read.
Here's the paper for your enjoyment: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1143855?utm_source=chatgpt.com
