Portugal 2023 5€ Dinosaur Miragaia longicollum

This coin designed by Joana Bruno, specialist in scientific illustration, shows on the obverse the cervical vertebrae of the Miragaia longicollum, as well as its skull and the bone plates that accompanied the animal's vertebral column.

On the reverse, we see a representation of this imposing stegosaurus in life, and it is possible to admire it in an almost three-dimensional way.

The "Long Necked Miragaia"
In 1999, in the Lourinhã area, fossilized bones of a dinosaur were found. However, only between 2002 and 2006, researchers prepared the fossils, molds and replicas, and concluded that they had discovered a new species of stegosaurus, which lived in the Upper Jurassic, 150 million years ago, the Miragaia longicollum.

It has a double meaning: in one hand Miragaia is the village near Lourinhã, where it was discovered but it also means "beautiful Gaia" (goddess of the Earth), with a long neck.

The original fossils as a model of the Miragaia longicollum, over four meters high, can be visited at the Museum and Dino Parque da Lourinhã.