The natural history museum of the southern state of Espírito Santo - MUSES: didactic activities in Geosciences and Paleontology / Museu de história natural do sul do estado do Espírito Santo - MUSES: atividades didáticas em Geociências e Paleontologia

 The Natural History Museum of the Southern State of Espírito Santo is a space for the imrprovement of learning that devel-ops activities such as workshops and events to increase the interest of visitors. The Museum also stands out in the human re-sources formation such as preparation of materials, lectures, courses for the monitors training. This work aims to present the activities developed by the scholarship and volunteer monitors during the XIV Science and Technology Week. The museum gave the opportunity to train more than 80 monitors (fixed and volunteers), students of the Geology and Biological Sciences courses in workshops geosciences during the event. The results showed that 38% of the monitors had no contact with muse-ums in the last twelve months and that 45% still had no monitoring experience. The work showed that many reported lack self-confidence, about 45%, which required more expository classes and hands-on training for upcoming events. The conclusion is the Natural History Museum of the Southern State of Espírito Santo is a center of teaching and propagation of geosciences and paleontology, as well as the training of university monitors. This show the extreme importance in the southern region of Espírito Santo State. 

First description of scleractinian corals from the Santa Marta and Snow Hill Island (Gamma Member) formations, Upper Cretaceous, James Ross Island, Antarctica

Antarctic corals are known from the Upper Cretaceous Santa Marta Formation (Santonian–early Campanian) and Gamma Member (late Campanian) of Snow Hill Island Formation (late Campanian–early Maastrichtian) but they have not so far been taxonomically described. We describe three corals taxa based on 29 specimens collected in 2007 and 2016 on James Ross Island (northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula). They represent the first formal record of scleractinian corals from the Santa Marta Formation, identified as Caryophylliidae indet. and Gamma Member of Snow Hill Island Formation, identified as ?Astreopora sp. and Fungiacyathus deltoidophorus. The family Caryophylliidae and the genus Astreopora were not restricted to the Weddellian Biogeographic Province but the species Fungiacyathus deltoidophorus was endemic to Antarctica during the Cretaceous. The genus Fungiacyathus and the family Caryophylliidae thrive in Antarctica until the present day. Fungiacyathus occurred in shallower environments during the late Campanian than today. No specimens related to Astreopora have yet to be found in Antarctica after the late Campanian. This can be explained by the capacity of Fungiacyathus and Caryophyllidae to endure cold waters, since they are asymbiotic corals. The symbiotic ?Astreopora sp., due to its sensitivity to low temperatures, became extinct in this continent as soon as the Antarctic waters began to cool, around the Campanian/Maastrichtian. The presence of ?Astreopora sp. in Gamma Member of Snow Hill Island Formation may represents the first occurrence of this genus in Antarctica and the oldest record of this genus in the Southern Hemisphere

New Antarctic clawed lobster species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Nephropidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of James Ross Island

A new species of nephropid lobster, Hoploparia echinata sp. nov., from the James Ross Island in the Antarctic Peninsula is here described and illustrated. The material was collected in the Santa Marta Formation (Santonian–-Campanian), the basal unit of the Marambio Group, Larsen Basin, located in the western portion of the Antarctic Peninsula. Hoploparia echinata sp. nov. can easily be differentiated from its congeners by the presence of distinct short spines on dorsal and ventral margins on the third maxillipeds, merus of the chelipeds and pereopods; these are the characters not described in other Hoploparia species so far