Rupicapra rupicapra (Mammalia) In the Late Pleistocene of Portugal

The presence of the genus Rupicapra in Portugal is shown for the first time, on some dental and skeletal remains from the upper Pleistocene (Solutrean) of Salemas cave. The fossil material may be ascribed to R. rupicapra pyrenaica.

Les plus anciens mammifères terrestres du Miocène marin de Lisbonne - le gisement du Km 10

For the first time, small mammals were found at the earliest marine level in the northeastern part of the lower Tagus basin, to the NE of Lisbon. At this new locality, at the 10 kilometer of the Lisbon-Oporto A1-IP1 highway,conglomerates yielded, along with marine fossils, more or less abraded teeth and bones from insectivores,lagomorphs, rodents and small artiodactyls (sec Tableau 1). Age may he ascribed to the lower Miocene, MN 2b Neogene mammal unit (about 22 My), but an early MN 3 age cannot be entirely excluded. That corresponds to latest Aquitanian (or less probably earliest Burdigalian) (sec Tableau 2). This is the first hitherto found locality with small mammals of this age as far as Portugal is concerned, as well as the oldest locality so far known in the Tagus basin. Km 10 is somewhat older than the localities of Universidade Católica and Avenida do Uruguay in Lisbon (ANTUNES & MEIN, 1986). Hence we can rather accurately date the age of the first marine transgression in the northeastern part of the lower Tagus basin. This shows that in this region there are no marine equivalents of the "Venus ribeiroi beds" (Aquitanian,Division 1 of the Lisbon Miocene series). Correlation between this unit and the uppermost levels of the essentially paleogene "Complexo de Benfica" may be possible. Fossils at km 10 point out to shallow, coastal, highenergy marine environments. Sedimentological features are compatible with this model. Dry land and swamps with brackish (or ev en fresh) waters were present nearby. From those areas came remains of mammals, crocodylians, as well as oysters and charophytes that were later transported to the sea. Sea was warmer than the extant Atlantic at the same latitudes, even if conditions were not strictly tropical then. These conditions surely influenced climate in the nearby regions. Ecological data concerning mammalian faunas distinctly point out to nearby forest-rich environments, much more so than for Universidade Católica and Avenida do Uruguay localities, from where drier, even steppe environment forms largely prevail.

The bovid from the Carriça clay-pit (Côja): a discussion

A Bovid tooth referred to in the litterature as from the same locality that yielded upper Eocene mammals belongs to a modem or probably contemporary Bos taurus (domestic cattle); it is not a fossil and certainly was not found in situ. As it may induce in confusion, it must not anymore be taken into account in future paleontological and stratigraphic work.

Paleoclimatic and paleobiological correlations by mammal faunas from Southern America and SW Europe

Proceedings of the 1" R.C.A.N.S. Congress, Lisboa, October 1992

Depósitos continentais e marinhos na plataforma litoral da região do Porto. Importância da tectónica na sua organização espacial

One of the most common characteristics of Portuguese littoral is the existence of a planed surface (the so-called "littoral platform"), situated at different altitudes and bordered from the inland by a straight relief, strongly contrasting with that planed surface. This one is generally covered with several outcrops of the so-called Plio-Pleistocene deposits. Till the eighties this platform has been interpreted as stable staircase of old marine levels, registering in a passive way the eustatic variations. The rigid step bordering it easterly should be a fossil cliff. However, our study has proved that many of these deposits have a continental origin. These continental deposits have fluvial or alluvial fan facies and they are lying above 40 meters. Marine deposits seem to be quite rare and they only occupy a small western area, beneath the altitude of 40 meters and developing into three different marine levels. There is a rigid step between the two kinds of deposits. We think that the clear geometric separation between these deposits together with this rigid step, indicates a tectonic origin. It seems that the sea must have touched only the western part of this surface, when neotectonic movements lowered it down. There are more evidences for neotectonic movements: a) there are faults (mainly inverse faults) affecting the higher deposits of this littoral platform; b) the same marine level seems to appear at different altitudes, developing an irregular pattern with a general trend dipping from the North to the South.

Late Quaternary warm marine mollusks from Santa Maria (Azores); paleoecologic and paleobiogeographic considerations

The sub-fossil fauna from the Late Quaternary marine deposits of Santa Maria is made of more than 50 species of gastropods and bivalves, 19 of them collected recently and for the first time in the northern coast of the island (Lagoinhas Bay). The sub-fossil shells are found in deposits of beach sands, situated 2-3 meters above the present low tide. The carbonated sands from the basal part of the succession yield an autochthonous association of borers dominated by the bivalve Myoforceps aristata (Dillwin, 1817). Upwards, the marine sands contain concentrations of beach drift shells, including well-preserved supratidal and intertidal gastropods, among them a large number of Rissoidae. The bivalve fauna is dominated by disarticulated valves of Ervilia castanea (Montagu, 1803), a small infaunal coloniser of mobile sandy substrates. The composition of the fauna is made essentially of West European species, many of them common to the West Coast of Portugal. However, a few "warm guests" with West African or Caribbean affinities were also found, suggesting a close relation with some of the "Tyrrhenian" warm associations found in the Western Mediterranean.

La biochronologie des Mammifères néogènes d'Europe. L'échelle MN, son application à la succession des faunes du Portugal

Similarly to other organisms, Vertebrates changed during the Cenozoic Era. Mammals are the only ones to change quickly; their well mineralised bones and teeth are often fossilised. They are highly diverse and even isolated teeth can be identified. They are thus a good tool for establishing a biochronological framewoork. Among Mammals, Rodents with a short lifetime evolve more quickly than the large Mammals. In Europe, the first elaborated zonation was investigated by the Regional Committee on Neogene Stratigraphy and issued as the MN Zonation (Mammals Neogene) by Mein, 1976. During the following years, progress in knowledge lead to new charts. The latest one resulted from collective work (de Bruijn et al., 1992). Bîochronology gives relative data; if we desire to have numerical age estimates, we must correlate these results with radiometrie data, marine biostratigraphîcal units or the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale. For Europe, these results are summarised by Steininger et al. (1989-1996) and Steininger (1999). After some recents developments on MN Zonation, here is discussed the succession of Neogene small mammals Portuguese localities. Fortunately these localities are in majority inbedded in marine context. Their assigment to MN Zones is proposed and correlations with the spanish Aragonian Scale (Daams el al., 1999) are also suggested. In fact, some differences appear between Portugal and Aragonian assemblages, probably for ecological reasons. Therefore, the MN zonation is always useful for short and long distance biochronological correlations.

Upper Paleocene-Early Eocene mollusks of Silveirinha (Figueira da Foz, West Central Portugal)

A collection of fossil gastropods and bivalves assembled at the Thanetian/Ypresian vertebrate site of Silveirinha (Figueira da Foz, West Central Portugal) is analysed from the point of view of systematics and palaeoecology. The diversity is scarce but the age and exceptional characteristics of the site are factors that substantiate a detailed study. The taxa identified are: Bithynia soaresi sp. nov., Gyraulus antunesi sp. nov., Chlamys sp. and Cardiiacea gen. sp. indet. The prevailing of freshwater gastropods and the occurrence of 2 fragments of marine bivalves suggest a palaeoenvironmental setting that is in conformity with interpretations already established, which are based both in sedimentologic and vertebrate data. These interpretations point out the existence of a freshwater environment opened from time to time to marine influences, resulting from a palaeoatlantic coast placed some kilometres westwards.

A new dinosaur tracksite in the Lower Cretaceous of Portugal

A new Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) dinosaur tracksite at the Olhos de Água beach is described. It is the first vertebrate fossil finding ever found in the concerned unit, and yielded 128 tracks in 17 trackways within an area of ca. 80 square metres. Three tridactyl footprint morphotypes have been recognized: - Type I ("Iguanodontipus-like") - trackways D, F, K, J and P; - Type 2 (large theropod), although larger in size, typically from a Grallator-like theropod footprint, i.e , A, B, G, H and 0 trackways; - Type 3 (medium size theropod); M is the only track of this type. There are other, poorly preserved, unidentified trackways. The theropod, swinging trackway B was produced by an animal that was limping. The theropod track M starts eastwards but drastically changes westwards, speeding up at the same time; this dinosaur decided to turn around and run in the opposite direction. This site shows three main trackway directions: to the South, to the East, and westwards. Except for the trackway 0, large theropods A, B, G and H walked southwards. Perpendicularly to the se, ornithopods, small theropods and unidentified trackmakers walked towards East (5) and West (7). The segregation oftrackmakers and directions, with large theropod traekways southwards and other dinosaurs' west or eastwards, may mean that large theropods patrolled a walkway area to an important resource, most probably water, often frequented by ornithopods and smaller theropods. There is no evidence of social behavior or gregarism: footprints' overposition shows that the large, southwards walking theropods passed on different occasions. Three trackway sequences can be established by chronologic order.

Une succession de référence pour le Toarcien Moyen et Supérieur: les "Margas calcárias de São Gião" dans les environs de Cantanhede (sous-bassin nord lusitanien, Portugal)*

The geological sections studied at the São Gião sector (Cantanhede region) have allowed the establishment of a clear succession of ammonite associations during the Middle and Upper Toarcian (“Margas calcárias de São Gião” and “Calcários margosos de Póvoa da Lomba” Formations). The fossil collections were gathered over the last 40 years and, in spite of the apparent facies monotony, come from a thick and fossiliferous marly-limestone unit. The ammonite succession allows the establishment and/or verification of a certain number of biostratigraphical elements, of which are worthy of mention: – the tethyan character of the fauna from the Gradata to the Meneghinii Zones; this differentiation starts with the occurrence of Collina, Crassiceras and Furloceras of the Gradata Zone; – the succession of Osperleioceras, with the connection between the “caussenardes”(O. reynesi, O. authelini) forms and those from Algeria (O. nadorense, O. matteii), which is placed at the beginning of the Aalensis Zone; – the succession of Hammatoceratinae: H. roubanense (Gradata Z.), H. bonarellii (Bonarellii Z.), H. speciosum (Speciosum Sub-zone), followed by Crestaites meneghinii (Reynesi Sub-zone and Meneghinii Z.); Pseudaptetoceras appear next (Aalensis Zone). The dynamic evolution of the sector is characterized by the persistence of marly sedimentation during the Meneghinii Zone, in probable relation to the paleostructural play of the Arunca-Montemor meridian axis.

Os topónimos algarvios na Paleontologia portuguesa

Since the XIX century, Portuguese and foreign geologists have defined 47 new invertebrate taxa (foraminifera, ostracods, coelenterates, brachiopods, gastropods, ammonoids, echinoids), 2 new fossil plant taxa (charophyte and pteridophyte) and 1 ichnofossil, using toponymy from the Algarve; these taxa refer to 1 genera, 47 species and 2 varieties. Besides the Algarve toponym, the most used as specific name, twenty others have been used, mostly from western Algarve; these toponyms are associated to: – Miocene units, particularly from Ribeira de Cacela and Ferragudo; – Cretaceous units between Zavial and Marim; – Upper Jurassic units from Sagres, Carrapateira and Loulé and Middle Jurassic units from Sagres and Guilhim; – Triassic units from Vila do Bispo to Tavira; – Carboniferous units, particularly from the Aljezur-Bordeira-Carrapateira region. The earliest of these designations were attributed to seven gastropods from the Upper Miocene of Cacela (COSTA, 1866-1867). The majority of the named species are typical of the Algarve, but some have been collected, as well, in the Lusitanian Basin. Although extensively cited in the geological literature, some of these taxa either do not fulfill the ICZN rules, or fall into synonymy with previously established taxa, or should be formally considered as non valid names (nomem nudum and nomen oblitum). Only widespread bibliographical review, associated with the palaeontological revision of some of these groups and the correct interpretation of the ICZN articles, will allow confirming, or not, the doubts that have now arisen.

Paleontologia e evolução a problemática da espécie em Paleozoologia

The concept of species in Paleontology is of paramount importance since the correct taxonomic determinations are essential to establish the age of the beds where fossils are collected. Particularly since 1940, the concept of species from a biological context, corresponding to the variability of a set of interpopulation compatibility, led us to a new approach, in which a typological conception has been replaced by a populationist one. If the notion of species is not necessarily identical for all living organisms, the greater the difficulties of interpretation in the private world of cephalopod fossils. The latter, lend themselves well to population systematics, and where this concept of species rests primarily on the morphological similarities. Thus, the introduction of general ideas analyse "typological species", "biological species", the problem of the definition of a "population" in Paleontology, and also the importance of the biometric analysis of fossil associations. The classic examples of polymorphism amd polytypism, in existing or extinct organisms, show that the concept of fossil species, observed in a well-defined period of its lifetime, is no different from that of biological species. The study of the evolution of fossil organisms allow us to understand the modelities of evolution and the mechanisms of speciation here synthesized and fully documented, namely the anagenesis or sequential evolution and the cladogenesis or divergent evoltuion; these mechanisms are the basis of the synthetic or gradualist theory of evolution developed by Dobzhansky, Mayr, Huxley, Rensch and impson. This summary ends with a reference to the theory of punctuated (or intermittent) equilibria proposed by Gould and Eldredge, who presented a more objective interpretation of morphological gaps, considered as elements of evolution itself. The interdisciplinary collaboration between zoologists, geneticists and paleontologists, is compulsory in this domain. Paleozoology has a key role since it conveys the dynamism and depth to the dimension of space-time duality.

Bioenergy competency centre: study of the bioenergy potencial in the centre region of Portugal.

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Projecto SIGAP: sistema de informação geográfica aplicado à Palentologia

Trabalho de projecto apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica.

PV inverters for module level applications

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Energias Renováveis – Conversão Eléctrica e Utilização Sustentáveis