The biota of the upper cretaceous site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain)

Artículo escrito por un elevado número de autores, solo se referencian el que aparece en primer lugar, el nombre del grupo de colaboración, si le hubiere, y los autores pertenecientes a la UAMThe Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) fossil site of Lo Hueco was recently discovered close to the village of Fuentes (Cuenca, Spain) during the cutting of a little hill for installation of the railway of the Madrid-Levante high-speed train. To date, it has yielded a rich collection of well-preserved Cretaceous macrofossils, including plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The recovered fossil assemblage is mainly composed of plants, molluscs (bivalves and gastropods), actinopterygians and teleosteans fishes, amphibians, panpleurodiran (bothremydids) and pancryptodiran turtles, squamate lizards, eusuchian crocodyliforms, rhabdodontid ornithopods, theropods (mainly dromaeosaurids), and titanosaur sauropods. This assemblage was deposited in a near-coast continental muddy floodplain crossed by distributary sandy channels, exposed intermittently to brackish or marine and freshwater flooding as well as to partial or total desiccation events. The Konzentrat-Lagerstatt of Lo Hueco constitutes a singular accumulation of fossils representing individuals of some particular lineages of continental tetrapods, especially titanosaurs, eusuchians and bothremydid turtles. In the case of the titanosaurs, the site has yielded multiple partial skeletons in anatomical connection or with a low dispersion of their skeletal elements. A combination of new taxa, new records of taxa previously known in the Iberian Peninsula, and relatively common taxa in the European record compose the Lo Hueco biota. The particular conditions of the fossil site of Lo Hueco and the preliminary results indicate that the analysis of the geological context, the floral and faunal content, and the taphonomical features of the site provide elements that will be especially useful for reassess the evolutionary history of some lineages of European Late Cretaceous reptilesThe fieldwork at Lo Hueco (2007-2009) was funded by ADIF (the state-owned company that administrate the Spanish railway infrastructures) through the company awarded the civil works (Ferrovial). The authors acknowledge the involvement and commitment to this task to the more-than-one-hundred technicians and assistants. The paleontological excavation was authorized by the Dirección General de Patrimonio y Museos de la Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-la Mancha whose acronym is 04.0392-P11. The excavation also received support from different estates of the Government of the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha (Presidencia de la JCCM, Consejería de Cultura, Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Delegación de la JCCM en Cuenca) and the City Council of Fuentes. Research at Lo Hueco was financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación: CGL2009-12008, CGL2011-25894, CGL2009-10766, CGL2009-12143, and currently the proyect CGL2012-35199: “Estudio paleoambiental, faunístico y florístico del yacimiento del Cretácico Superior de Lo Hueco (Fuentes, Cuenca)”. Part of this research has been also financed within the projects PEII11-0237-7926 of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha. L.D. acknowledges a PICATA contract of the UCM-UPM Moncloa Campus of International Excellence (Spain). Preparation of the material has been partially developed by the Employment Workshop of Paleontological Restoration of Lo Hueco funded by the Fondo Social Europeo, Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Spanish Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social, and the Diputación Provincial de Cuenc

The biota of the Upper Cretaceous site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain)

The Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) fossil site of Lo Hueco was recently discovered close to the village of Fuentes (Cuenca, Spain) during the cutting of a little hill for installation of the railway of the Madrid-Levante high-speed train. To date, it has yielded a rich collection of well-preserved Cretaceous macrofossils, including plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The recovered fossil assemblage is mainly composed of plants, molluscs (bivalves and gastropods), actinopterygians and teleosteans fishes, amphibians, panpleurodiran (bothremydids) and pancryptodiran turtles, squamate lizards, eusuchian crocodyliforms, rhabdodontid ornithopods, theropods (mainly dromaeosaurids), and titanosaur sauropods. This assemblage was deposited in a near-coast continental muddy floodplain crossed by distributary sandy channels, exposed intermittently to brackish or marine and freshwater flooding as well as to partial or total desiccation events.The Konzentrat-Lagerstatt of Lo Hueco constitutes a singular accumulation of fossils representing individuals of some particular lineages of continental tetrapods, especially titanosaurs, eusuchians and bothremydid turtles. In the case of the titanosaurs, the site has yielded multiple partial skeletons in anatomical connection or with a low dispersion of their skeletal elements. A combination of new taxa, new records of taxa previously known in the Iberian Peninsula, and relatively common taxa in the European record compose the Lo Hueco biota. The particular conditions of the fossil site of Lo Hueco and the preliminary results indicate that the analysis of the geological context, the floral and faunal content, and the taphonomical features of the site provide elements that will be especially useful for reassess the evolutionary history of some lineages of European Late Cretaceous reptiles.Peer reviewe

The westernmost records of extinct large European tortoises: the presence of Titanochelon (Testudinidae) in the Miocene of Portugal

The information about the European giant fossil tortoises has been greatly increased in recent years, based on the description of new material and the revision of previously published specimens. A genus with a wide paleobiogeographic and stratigraphic distribution, Titanochelon, has recently been described, containing all large testudinids from the European Neogene record. Its type species, Titanochelon bolivari, was described in the Spanish record. The presence of this species outside this country had not been justified. In this paper we present and describe fossil material of large testudinids from several sites in the Lisbon District (Portugal), from lower (Quinta da Barbacena; MN4), middle (Charneca do Lumiar and Quinta da Farinheira; MN5) and upper (Aveiras de Baixo; MN9) Miocene levels. This study allows us to confirm the presence of Titanochelon in the Portuguese record and justify, for the first time, the presence of Titanochelon bolivari outside Spain. Furthermore we are able to discuss the geographical and temporal distribution of the large tortoises in the middle Miocene of Europe, a relevant period for the diversity and evolution of this clade.Fil: Pérez García, A.. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia; EspañaFil: Vlachos, Evangelos. Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mocho, P.. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia; Españ

Characteristics of formaldehyde emissions from indoor materials assessed by a method using passive flux sampler measurements

International audienceA method was developed and tested to characterize the gas-phase boundary layer developing on the surface of seven indoor materials from formaldehyde emission measurements carried out under environmental chamber conditions using passive flux samplers having different diffusion lengths. This indirect approach consistently provides many assessed values of gas-phase boundary layer thickness with a mean and range of 31.6 +/- 17.4 mm. These experiments also yield other information like the gas concentration on the material surface as well as the concentration gradient inside the gas-phase boundary layer. Linear relationships were found between formaldehyde gas concentration on the material surface, the concentration gradient inside the gas-phase boundary layer and the emission rate. Data and relationships should be useful for parameterizing and modeling formaldehyde emissions from indoor surfaces

Hierarchical cluster analysis of carbonyl compounds emission profiles from building and furniture materials

International audienceEmission profiles of carbonyl compounds from twenty-three indoor materials were assessed by chamber tests and compared by means of a hierarchical cluster analysis. This multivariate method provides a partition into six clusters of materials having statistically similar chemical profiles. Formaldehyde is the most dominant component of emissions mainly related to two types of wood composite products (chipboards and medium-density fibreboards (MDF)) and one finishing plaster. The analysis of clusters reveals that the emission profiles of materials belonging to a same category can have various degrees of variability. Some common pressed-wood products as chipboards and medium-density fibreboards have relatively uniform profiles characterized by its unique emission of formaldehyde. On the contrary, the profiles of Oriented Strand Boards (OSB) and finishing plasters appear very heterogeneous and unspecific in terms of relative dominance between different carbonyl compounds. The finishing plasters are identified as sources of carbonyl compounds (formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, especially). These finishing products have not yet been listed as potential formaldehyde and acetaldehyde emitters. According to these results, the wood composite products can also be ranked in the decreasing order of formaldehyde emission as follows: Chipboards > MDFs > Plywoods > OSBs. In light of these results, more systematic surveillance program on the emissions from materials should be set up by Public Health services to require or request product changes for building and furnishing applications