Monumento Natural dos Lagosteiros

On a sloping rock, you can literally follow in the footsteps of dinosaurs. This can be extended to a hike to the nearby beach.

A somewhat rocky hike leads from the parking lot at the cape to a small beach: the ”Pistas de Dinossauros” are well-marked and were discovered by scientists in 1971 while searching for a photographic angle on the Pedra da Mua. The footprints are 130 million years old, the only site of Cretaceous trackways in Portugal, and considered by experts to be one of the most remarkable. However, their condition is not optimal: the impressions are described as "unclear underprints,” attributed to ornithopods.

Specifically, they are thought to be Iguanodons. These creatures are known as the ”cows of the prehistoric world,” grazing in large herds. Despite being peaceful herbivores, they are among the few species capable of chewing their food — quite a bit of it, considering their ideal weight of four to five tons.

Iguanodons are also famously depicted in movies as being preyed upon by the T-Rex. However, for this to happen, the T-Rex would need to travel back in time. If we exclude such an anachronism, the other tracks present, belonging to carnivorous dinosaurs, must belong to one of its ancestors. We don’t know for certain. It’s also speculative whether these animals were moving together: since large predators are often considered solitary, it’s just as likely that several individuals hunted here at different times. What we do know is that they moved at a speed of 14 km/h. It's also fairly certain that these are not the tracks of a chase — after all, would a fleeing Iguanodon stop to rest on its tail?