Montes Universales is a long mountain range in the southeastern end of the

Iberian System Iberian refers to Iberia. Most commonly Iberian refers to: *Someone or something originating in the Iberian Peninsula, namely from Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. The term ''Iberian'' is also used to refer to anything pertaining to the fo ...

. Its highest point is the 1,935 m high summit known as Caimodorro. The 1,830 m high Muela de San Juan is another important peak. Administratively, the Montes Universales belong to the Sierra de Albarracín comarca of Aragon, therefore there are often confused with the geographical Sierra de Albarracín mountain range.

Geography

The range, which is aligned in a NW - SE direction, is not as high as neighboring ranges. It is, however, very significant from the hydrographic point of view, for important rivers of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

have their source in these mountains, which divide the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

watershed. Among the Iberian rivers that originate in the Montes Universales, the most important are the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...

on the western slopes, and the Túria,

Cabriel Cabriel () or Cabriol () is a tributary of the Júcar River in the province of Albacete, Spain. It has its source in the Montes Universales. See also * List of rivers of Spain This is an incomplete list of rivers that are at least partially i ...

and Xúquer on the eastern. The Montes Universales are bordered by the

paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

massifs of Caimodorro and Loma Alta in the northeast, by the Serranía de Cuenca in the southeast, and by the

Sierra de Jabalón Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and " saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range ...

and the Túria Valley in the east.

Flora and fauna

These mountains are covered with, mostly not very dense, clumps of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and Iberian juniper forest.

Radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

samples from Ojos del Tremedal show that

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

es, now almost absent from these mountains, were very common in the Montes Universales during the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

around 9,600 years ago. Signs of human interference with the vegetation have been detected beginning about 3,500 years

Before Present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...

Zapater's ringlet Zapater's ringlet (''Erebia zapateri'') is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae of the family Nymphalidae.endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

butterfly of these mountains.''Erebia zapateri'' - Zapater's Ringlet
/ref>

Features

References

External links

Rama aragonesa del Sistema Ibérico

Ruta amb bicicleta a Frías de Albarracín, Montes Universales

''Plantas de los Montes Universales''

{{Mountain ranges of the Iberian System Mountain ranges of Aragon Mountain ranges of the Sistema Ibérico Tagus basin