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The Orígens Geopark UGGp situated in Lleida (Catalonia), is characterized by a rich Cretaceous fossil heritage. One of the most impressive fossil collections comes from the Meià Quarry (Vilanova de Meià village), which has provided a huge amount of lithographic limestone slabs with vertebrates, nonvertebrates (including insects), plants and coprolites of Barremian-Aptian ages (about 125 mya) preserved as two-dimensional structures that shows even the soft parts of their morphology. This palaeontological site is known for providing one of the most primitive angiosperms plants (Montsechia vidalii) and the presence of two specimens of the primitive bird (Noguerornis gonzalezi). Hitherto the site has yielded 112 holotypes and paratypes, and 151 different species, which gives a real indication of its palaeoecological importance.However, this site is almost unknown except for specialized researchers, because these fossils have been disseminated in more than 10 public collections and an indeterminate number of private ones. The collection of the fossils from both European universities and local amateurs, started at the beginnings of commercial exploitation as a lithographic limestone quarry, in 1898. The weak palaeontological Spanish scientific network together with the lack of heritage laws, have allowed this dispersion during the first 75 years of the twentieth century. This situation changed with the implication of the Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs, a scientific and cultural branch of the Diputació de Lleida, which was involved in the fieldwork campaigns of the site and keeps in its collection more than 4.000 fossils. This collection is the basis of the exhibition housed in Vilanova de Meià, that shows the most interesting fossils found in the quarry and its history. This exhibition should be one of the cultural attractions of this small village and a point of attraction for cultural tourism. Finally, in order to assign the real importance of this palaeontological site, a global European database of the spread fossils is being built to disseminate them on a virtual platform.

A state of the art of the Barremian Konservat-Lagerstätte of la Pedrera de Meià site (Southern Pyrenees) is compiled here including the acquisition of new geological data. The relevance of this site, together with the nearby la Cabroa site, is due to its paleobiotic richness and the fact that 113 holotypes and paratypes of flora and fauna have already been defined. Since its discovery at the end of the 19th century and its exploitation as a lithographic limestone quarry, the site has been the object of paleontological interest by national and foreign research teams that are summarized here (including the catalogue of 223 publications). A survey of the existing type specimens in collections all over Europe is also provided, being France and Germany, the countries where more fossils are hosted other than Spain. The geological frame of this site is also reviewed, by revisiting unpublished geological mappings (mainly that of Krusat, 1966) and integrating it in a comprehensive map that includes 4 revisited outcrops of lithographic limestone which could be potential paleontological sites. The available stratigraphic sections did allow the precise location of paleontological data and findings and environmental proxies. The stratigraphic sections obtained have a thickness of about 50m and contain a minimum of 40.000 limestone layers, being an approximation of the years represented in the la Pedrera de Meià site, and the time expanded of the lake during the Barremian.

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