Synopsis

In 1909, a young English woman embarked to Mallorca, following the trail of some mysterious bones. For two years, she climbs, scales and explores each cavity in the rocks of Mallorca, Eivissa and Menorca, and recounts the experience in her diaries. The first of them disappears, but the rest are preserved and narrate the experience in detail.

"Dorothea and the Myotragus" is a documentary that incorporates animation to recreate the diaries written in the Balearic Islands by Dorothea Bate, one of the most important paleontologists of all time, a woman who fought against the gender stereotypes of her time and the discoverer of mysterious extinct animal species in the Mediterranean, including the mythical Myotragus balearicus.

Dorothea Bate was forgotten after her death. The documentary, directed by Núria Abad and Marta Hierro, investigates the unknown figure of this woman and shows the enigmas that exist not only around her work, but also Myotragus balearicus itself, about which there are still many unresolved questions.

"Dorothea and the Myotragus" uses animation to show the adventures of Dorothea Bate and the difficulties she had to overcome to travel alone to the Balearic Islands at the beginning of the 20th century. The animation, created by Luis Ozonas with illustrations by Elisa Martínez, shows the heroic work of this woman, who had to overcome not only the typical logistical problems of the time, but also the added prejudices of being a woman.

The documentary team had access to the diaries that Dorothea Bate wrote during the three trips she made to the Balearic Islands, from 1909 to 1911, as well as the fossils she found throughout the Mediterranean, which are kept in the History Museum. Native of London. Among them is the skull of the first Myotragus balearicus that Dorothea Bate discovered, and that placed the Balearic Islands on the world scientific map. Precisely, the collaboration of the Natural History Museum of London has been essential to carry out the research and documentation work that has made it possible to reveal the details of Dorothea Bate's work in the Balearic Islands, and her importance as a researcher.

Likewise, the documentary includes the participation of the main experts in Myotragus balearicus, who at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies continue to investigate to find out the mysteries that still exist about this species that lived in Mallorca and Menorca during the Pleistocene. Among the enigmas that still remain to be solved is, even, that of its own extinction.