Muja Jurassic Museum of Asturias

Did you know that... the MUJA, Jurassic Museum of Asturias

It is located in the so-called Rasa de San Telmo, in the municipality of Colunga, between the latter and Lastres, dominating what has been called the Dinosaur Coast. This singularly shaped museum houses one of the most complete and didactic exhibitions in the world on these fascinating prehistoric animals. The MUJA, Jurassic Museum of Asturias shows how, through time, life on Earth has evolved from its beginnings to the arrival of man, especially the Mesozoic or Era of the Dinosaurs and its three periods: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, located separately in each of the three fingers of the great footprint that forms the building. In its permanent exhibition, the route follows a chronological sequence, first the Premesozoic, followed by the Mesozoic with its three stages Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic and the later eras to the present day, which is called the Postmesozoic.

What to see in the MUJA, Jurassic Museum of Asturias?

In the Premesozoic room is exhibited since the beginning of life on Earth, which took place about 3500 million years ago, with the first organisms that inhabited it and a classification of the first species of vertebrates and their relationship between them and how the planet underwent significant changes allowing the development of some and the disappearance of others. The extinction suffered at the end of the Paleozoic was the most devastating and led to the disappearance of most beings. Within the Mesozoic, in the room of its first stage the Triassic, which is the period in which the dinosaurs appear, is shown through the bones, footprints or Icnites, fossil excrements and even the stones they ingested to serve as food crushers within their own stomachs, as these fantastic animals were and has been chosen as an example to the Plateosaurus, which is the oldest and largest dinosaur that existed in Europe.

Follow the visit

In the next room, the Jurassic, which is considered one of the periods of maximum splendour of the dinosaurs, it is intended that the visitor can observe the differences between the large existing groups of these famous reptiles: Theropods, with their defensive elements of claws and teeth, or the ornithopods in which their morphology is more related to their vegetarian diet, the tyrophorists, with their defensive elements against predators and could not miss the large sauropod dinosaur, Camarasaurus, which is frequent in deposits in the United States, to which must be added a sample of the jurassic marine vertebrate ecosystem. Asturias, like the rest of the territories, suffered continuous geographical changes throughout the 55 million years of the Jurassic period, which made it possible to alternate stages of marine dominion, rich in fossils and swimming reptiles, with others in which the withdrawal from the sea gave way to terrestrial and coastal ecosystems populated by dinosaurs and other vertebrates, such as flying reptiles, turtles... for this reason, the abundant traces and bony parts of these Jurassic vertebrates that have been found in the coastal deposits, constitute one of the best and most complete inventories of fossil records in this period.

To discover

In the room from the last Mesozoic period, the Cretaceous shows aspects of its way of life and social customs and how a series of events that occurred at the end of this stage ended with the majority of dinosaurs as they were known and the evolution towards other species more adapted to their new environment. But the real protagonists of this room are a couple of Tyrannosaurus Rex, as we have been told, are part of the largest land predators in the history of our planet. In the Postmesozoic room are represented some events that took place from the disappearance of much of the dinosaurs to our days, as was changing towards the mammals predecessors of modern faunas, the evolution of the landscape and ecosystem over the years, drawings with reconstructions of prehistoric man, a specimen of a skull of the cave bear ... a real exhibitor of what was, has been and is life on our planet. In addition the MUJA offers a series of spaces that complete the cultural offer and services of the museum.

Curiosities

The exterior of the building is like the emptying of a mould of an Icnita placed upside down, its entire perimeter being blind with the exception of the entrance and exit doors. To the cover, of old copper, the time will go tingendo with a green tone and little by little it will be integrated fully in the landscape. The interior, a wooden structure makes us think that we are covered by the ribs of a huge dinosaur. In the surroundings of the Muja you can enjoy a walk through its gardens among beautiful replicas of dinosaurs. If you want to see one of the largest sauropod dinosaur footprints in the world, just go to La Griega beach, which is only three kilometres from the museum and will make your visit to the Jurassic an unforgettable experience. From the mound where the museum is located there are magnificent views of the eastern Asturian coast, being a true viewpoint of the Jurassic landscape at its feet. ​

The Legend

The Asturian coastline between the towns of Gijón and Ribadesella is known as the "Dinosaur Coast". With nine Icnitas deposits along this coast, it is characterised by the abundance of footprints and bone remains of dinosaurs and other Jurassic reptiles.

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