Discovery and study of dinosaurs from Spain: The contribution of Albert F. de Lapparent

Albert F. de Lapparent (1905–1975), the scion of a family of famous French geologists, was a dinosaur palaeontologist. He explored many territories in Europe, Saharan Africa and Asia in search of fossils. The studies he undertook in Spain, which resulted in a dozen publications between 1955 and 1969, are an important part of his research on dinosaurs. Lapparent et al. discovered about thirty dinosaur localities, mostly of Cretaceous age, in several Spanish provinces, including Albacete, Castellón, Cuenca, Soria, Teruel and Valencia in the Iberian Range, and Lleida (or Lérida) in the Pyrenean region. In 1958, Lapparent published the discovery of dinosaur eggs in the Tremp Basin (Lleida), the first ones found in the Iberian Peninsula. His 1960 work on the dinosaurs of Galve (Teruel) was the first monograph on the subject published in Spain. In 1965, Lapparent was also the first to publish the discovery of dinosaur footprints in Spain, more specifically in the province of Valencia.