Paleorrota
Museums |
Paleorrota (in German Paleoroute ) is a geopark that extends over tens of thousands of square kilometers along the federal highway 287 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil . The there pending sedimentary rocks with their fossils are from the Triassic and Permian , the geological eras of the existence of the supercontinent Pangea . They therefore have a numerical age of 290 to 201 million years. The following sedimentary formations are represented (from young to old):
- Caturrita formation
- Santa Maria formation
- Sanga-do-Cabral formation
- Rio-do-Rastro formation
- Irati formation
These formations contain several fossil deposits, in which a rich fauna of primeval terrestrial vertebrates has been handed down. Among other things, in 1936 an excavation team led by the paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price in the Santa Maria Formation near the eponymous city of Santa Maria discovered the fossils of the first dinosaur found in Brazil and one of the earliest dinosaurs. The fossils were later described under the name Staurikosaurus pricei .
The sedimentary rocks in the urban area of Mata , São Pedro do Sul and Santa Maria in the west of the geopark are also important palaeobotanically . There are several sites with petrified tree trunks in an area of 70 square kilometers.
At the end of the Permian there was a mass extinction that killed 95% of the species present at the time. This led to great upheavals among the surviving taxa in the subsequent Triassic. The following fossil finds in the area of the Paleorrota helped to better understand the faunistic changes:
- Staurikosaurus , one of the oldest pelvic lizard dinosaurs
- Sacisaurus , possibly the oldest bird pelvic dinosaur
- Pelycosaurs . From them later emerged the cynodontic animals , which in turn passed on to mammals . The fossil finds in the Geopark are therefore very important for understanding the evolution of mammals .
Vertebrates of the Paleorrota
CAPPA - Paleontological Research Center
Universities |
CAPPA (Paleontological Research Center) or ( Centro de Apoio a Pesquisa Paleontológica ) in Portuguese . The research facility under construction is located in the city of São João do Polêsine in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and is located on the RS 149 state road near the Nossa Senhora da Salete monument . A museum , research laboratories , auditorium , lecture hall , accommodation, restaurant and various services for visitors, research staff and paleontology students are planned . The aim of this facility is to support paleontological research in the Paleorrota Geopark.
The facility will occupy 2649 square meters of floor space. The construction work will be carried out in three stages, with the first stage having already been completed. This project is financially supported by Petrobras and Eletrobrás .
Cities
The Paleorrota Geopark comprises 21 cities in Rio Grande do Sul | |
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city | information |
Although Porto Alegre does not lie on Triassic underground, it still has the most palaeontologists in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and can also boast numerous museums, institutions and universities:
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Santa Maria was built on very fossil-rich layers, so there are 22 outcrops in the city area alone . Dinosaurs can be seen in some city museums. In 2006, the fifth Brazilian Symposium on Vertebrate Paleontology was held at UFSM . In Santa Maria, along with countless other fossils, the first discovery of Staurikosaurus was made. The following fossil sites are located in the city:
The following city museums have fossils on display: |
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Vertebrate finds have also been made in the vicinity of Candelária. So was z. B. discovered in 2000 the thecodontier Karamuru . There are 17 outcrops in the city area alone . Municipal museum with exhibited fossils: |
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São Pedro do Sul has a large number of fossilized tree trunks and is also home to a dinosaur museum. The city is 40 km west of Santa Maria. In 1938 the German palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene found the thecodontier Prestosuchus chiniquensis here . Municipal museum with exhibited fossils: |
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There are also large deposits of petrified trees in Mata . Municipal museum with exhibited fossils: |
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São João do Polêsine is about 50 kilometers from Santa Maria. There are fossil sites in the urban area. The CAPPA (Paleontological Research Center) is being expanded here. |
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Sacisaurus was discovered in Agudo . |
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A Unaysaurus was found here only 13 kilometers from Santa Maria . |
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Also located near Santa Maria. There are also fossil-bearing outcrops in Dona Francisca. In 2008 a 240 million year old Cynodontier ( Luangwa) was discovered here. |
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Located north of Santa Maria. Faxinal do Soturno also has fossil sites. |
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The sites are in the north of the city. In Agudo , not far from Cachoeira do Sul , the ULBRA managed to find the fossilized remains of a Sacisaurus . |
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The 270 million year old remains of an ancient amphibian from the Permian period appeared in São Gabriel . There are the following three formations:
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Outcrops of the Upper Permian Rio-do-Rastro Formation lie along the BR-153 state road from Aceguá to Bagé . |
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Outcrops of the Upper Permian Rio-do-Rastro Formation lie along the BR-153 state road from Aceguá to Bagé . |
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In Dilermando de Aguiar the sub-Triassic Sanga-do-Cabral formation comes to light , outcrops are along the abandoned railway line from Dilermando de Aguiar to São Gabriel). |
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The fossilization of a cynodontic animal was found here. |
History
In 1902, under the direction of Dr. Jango Fischer carried out the first paleontological investigations in Santa Maria. Organic fossils were encountered near the Alemoa Hill - a rocky landscape between the city and the former Camobi district . Jango Fischer then sent some of the remains to Prof. Dr. Herrmann von Ihering, the museum director of São Paulo . Among the remains were three nearly complete vertebrae , one vertebral remnant, a finger with four phalanges, and a single toe . Von Ihering, in turn, passed this material on to Arthur Smith Woodward , an eminent paleontologist at the British Museum in London, for further investigation . Woodward recognized the fossil remains of a land-dwelling reptile in the material sent to him and thus the first such find from South America. He gave the taxon the name Scaphonyx fischeri (now Hyprodapedon ), the generic name means "canoe claw" with regard to the large claws, the species name honors the discoverer Jango Fischer.
In the following years, the main scientific focus was therefore on Santa Maria and several scientific expeditions were sent there. One of these expeditions was led by the German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene from 1928-29 . Many of the fossils found by his expedition are now at the University of Tübingen . Between the 1930s and 1950s, several expeditions were organized by Llewellyn Ivor Price , head of the palaeontological office in Rio de Janeiro . Price mainly examined the urban area and the surrounding area of São Pedro do Sul, Santa Maria and Candelária.
Many fossil finds go back to the tireless and unpaid work of the two priests Daniel Cargnin and Abraham Cargnin . The finds now enrich the collections of several museums, such as B. the Vincente Pallotti Museum . In honor of the late Daniel Cargnin, various taxa were given his name.
From the sixties, with the establishment of the Geological Institute at the UFRGS, the geological mapping of the state by means of graduate and doctoral students received an enormous boost, which in turn enriched the paleontological knowledge of the sedimentary rocks.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the amateur palaeontologist Walter Ilha from São Pedro do Sul conducted his fossil searches in the region. He also collected a large amount of literature (bibliographies, books and magazines) on the subject. Until his death in 1987 he was also actively involved in building a city museum. This museum later took on the name of the Paleontological and Archaeological Museum Walter Ilha in his honor .
Conservation status of the fossils
The fossilized vertebrates are embedded in red sediments . Their conservation status depends on the prevailing fossilization process:
- Without calcium carbonate , the fossils take on a white tint and are quite easily soluble in water.
- With calcium carbonate , the fossils appear rust-colored with a concrete-like constitution.
At a very specific ideal level of calcium carbonate, the fossils are undeformed and insoluble in water. Excess calcium carbonate leads to deformation and gives the fossil a puffy appearance. With very high levels of calcium carbonate, the fossil literally crumbles and is soluble in water.
Another significant phenomenon is slow soil creeping, which over millions of years can deform the fossils and sometimes leave them with slight undulations.
The rock in the Paleorrota Geopark is mostly covered by soil. Only about one percent of the pending has been exposed in streams, rivers, lakes and road cuts.
Geological formations
Geological formations of the geopark | |||
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formation | Age | city | fauna |
Legal regulations
Federal law has treated fossils as state property since the 1940s. In 2001, laws were passed to protect the fossils of the Paleorrota Geopark. They are:
- Fossils are a state cultural heritage.
- Only paleontologists or technical staff from recognized institutions are allowed to collect fossils.
- External institutions may only provide support in research projects of local institutes.
- Visiting paleontological sites is only permitted with an authorized escort.
- The transport of fossils requires a permit and is only allowed with a return guarantee.
- The only allowed commercial activities are tours with authorized guides.
The full regulations are available from the Brazilian Society of Paleontology .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Petrified tree trunks from Mata and the surrounding area. ( Memento of the original from February 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ São João do Polêsine on Portuguese .
- ↑ CAPPA - Sociedade Brasileira de Paleontologia on Portuguese . (PDF; 699 kB)
- ^ Fifth Brazilian Symposium on Vertebrate Paleontology
- ^ Sérgio Dias-da-Silva, Eliseu Vieira Dias, Cesar Leandro Schultz: First record of stereospondyls (Tetrapoda, Temnospondyli) in the Upper Triassic of Southern Brazil. In: Gondwana Research . 15, 2009, pp. 131-136, doi : 10.1016 / j.gr.2008.07.002 .
- ↑ Cynodontier in Santa Cruz do Sul ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Geoscientific Institute of the UFRGS
- ^ Brazilian Paleontological Society.
See also
- Bioerosion
- Collecting fossils
- History of paleontology
- Ichnology
- List of synapsids
- Paleobiology
- Taphonomy
Web links
- Expansion of the Paleorrota Geopark
- Dinosaurs from Rio Grande do Sul.
- Triassic amphibians from Rio Grande do Sul
- Database of fossil sites (PDF file; 736 kB)
- Triassic tetrapods from Rio Grande do Sul (PDF file; 633 kB)
- Geological map of Agudo (PDF file; 3.47 MB)
- New Cortado fossil site (PDF file; 2.66 MB)
- New Linha Várzea fossil site (PDF file; 371 kB)
- Paleontological tourism in Santa Maria (PDF file; 1.59 MB)
- Collection techniques in Peliten (PDF file; 673 kB)
- Paleobotanical sites of Mata and São Pedro (PDF file; 777 kB)
- Osteological revision of the Massetognathus Pascuali (PDF file; 336 kB)
- A procolophonoid reptile with temporal windows from the Central Triassic of Brazil (PDF file; 331 kB)
- Geological problems in West Gondwana (PDF file; 9.31 MB)
- Diagenetic patterns in vertebrates from the traversodontid biozone in the Santa Maria Formation (PDF file; 3.81 MB)
- The continental tetrapod-leading Triassic of southern Brazil (PDF file; 2.53 MB)
- Sub-Triassic postcranial remains of temnospondyles from southern Brazil (PDF file; 3.81 MB)
- Brasilodon and Brasilitherium from the Upper Triassic of Brazil (PDF file; 3.71 MB)
- Heterochrony in the Upper Triassic Rhynchosaur Scaphonyx (PDF file; 2.93 MB)
- Pareiasaurs from the Permian Rio-do-Rastro Formation (PDF file; 5.75 MB)