Systematic review of Late Jurassic sauropods from the Museu Geológico collections (Lisboa, Portugal)

The Museu Geológico collections house some of the first sauropod references of the Lusitanian Basin Upper Jurassic record, including the Lourinhasaurus alenquerensis and Lusotitan atalaiensis lectotypes, previously considered as new species of the Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus genera, respectively. Several fragmentary specimens have been classical referred to those taxa, but the most part of these systematic attributions are not supported herein, excluding a caudal vertebra from Maceira (MG 8804) considered as cf. Lusotitan atalaiensis. From the material housed in the Museu Geológico were identified basal eusauropods (indeterminate eusauropods and turiasaurs) and neosauropods (indeterminate neosauropods, diplodods and camarasaurids and basal titanosauriforms). Middle caudal vertebrae with lateral fossae, ventral hollow border by pronounced ventrolateral crests and quadrangular cross-section suggest for the presence of diplodocine diplodocids in north area of the Lusitanian Basin Central Sector during the Late Jurassic. A humerus collected from Praia dos Frades (MG 4976) is attributed to cf. Duriatitan humerocristatus suggesting the presence of shared sauropod forms between the Portugal and United Kingdom during the Late Jurassic. Duriatitan is an indeterminate member of Eusauropoda and the discovery of new material in both territories is necessary to confirm this systematic approach. The studied material is in according with the previous recorded paleobiodiversity for the sauropod clade during the Portuguese Late Jurassic, which includes basal eusauropods (including turiasaurs), diplodocids and macronarians (including camarasaurids and basal titanosauriforms).

Nanotechnology in food industry II: risk assessment and legislation

Currently, there is increasing use of nanomaterials in the food industry thanks to the many advantages offered and make the products that contain them more competitive in the market. Their physicochemical properties often differ from those of bulk materials, which require specialized risk assessment. This should cover the risks to the health of workers and consumers as well as possible environmental risks. The risk assessment methods must go updating due to more widespread use of nanomaterials, especially now that are making their way down to consumer products. Today there is no specific legislation for nanomaterials, but there are several european dispositions and regulations that include them. This review gives an overview of the risk assessment and the existing current legislation regarding the use of nanotechnology in the food industry.

What is this thing called Historical Archaeology?

Historical archaeology, in its narrow temporal sense -as an archaeology of the emergence and subsequent evolution of the Modern world- is steadily taking pace in Spanish academia. This paper aims at provoking a more robust debate through understanding how Spanish historical archaeology is placed in the international scene and some of its more relevant particularities. In so doing, the paper also stresses the strong links that have united historical and prehistorical archaeology since its inception, both in relation to the ontological, epistemological and methodological definition of the first as to the influence of socio-political issues in the latter. Such reflection is partly a situated reflection from prehistory as one of the paper’s authors has been a prehistorian for most of her professional life.