Isona Museum exhibits 3,000 fossil specimens collected by doctor 

Lluís Ferrer i Condal was a doctor and amateur paleontologist who gathered extraordinary fossils from Catalan sites and around the world. 

Before his death in 2011, Ferrer i Condal would collect these fossils through exchanges with other enthusiasts or museums around the world. 

In 2024, the Ferrer family donated the collection of more than 5,000 fossil pieces to the Museu de la Conca Dellà in Isona. 

The collection covers almost 500 million years and includes more than 3,000 specimens. 

The fossils now shown in the exhibition were the collection he had on display in his house in Fuliola. 

The exhibition 'Llúis Ferrer i Condal, the singular story of a fossil collection made by a rural doctor' contextualizes the Ferrer i Condal collection within the post-war years (1940-1960) when paleontology in Spain was newer. 

Ferrer i Condal was a doctor in Salás de Pallars, Tívira and La Fuliola, destinations said to be chosen for the possibility of collecting fossils. 

The collection contains records and fossils from sites around the world, 2,324 from Catalan territories, 256 from the rest of Spain, 150 from France, 277 from the United States, 41 from Germany, 65 from Belgium; a total of 3,251 from 377 sites and 26 countries. 

Among the 3,251 fossils, two are particularly exceptional, a feather and a frog skeleton. 

The feather was found by Ferrer i Condal in 1953 in La Pedrera de Meiá. 

Àngel Galobart, director of the museum, explains that despite its minor scientific significance it is an "exceptionally preserved fossil and one of the oldest known bird records."

In the same year and location Ferrer i Condal found almost a complete skeleton of a small frog. 

Galobart said lithographic limestone that preserved the fossil was split into two slabs with the fossil on both sides. 

Ferrer i Condal kept one half and the other was purchased in 1954 by the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid for 20,000 pesetas, roughly €2,700 today.