The written stones of the Montesinho Natural Park : where palaeontology meets popular legend

Deep in the memory of the inhabitants of the region of Montesinho (NE Portugal), there is a legend which talks about the existence of enigmatic pedras escrevidas (="written stones") in the mountains near the village of Guadramil. In the first half of the 20th Century, what used to be considered some kind of rock engravings in quartzite, were studied by archaeologists, which interpreted these signs as a kind of very old (and unknown) pre-Roman writing. A modern geological mapping of the area of the Montesinho Natural Park allowed us to rediscover the original sites of these structures and interpret them as ichnofossils. They occur on the Lower Ordovician quartzites, towards the top of the lower member of the Marao Formation (Floian), which crops out extensively in the area, generating the mountainous relief of the Barreiras Brancas-La Culebra sierra. The study of the locality required two excavating campaigns, supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, which involved 40 highschool students during the summer of 2002 and 2003 in an area located 5 km north of Guadramil and very close to the Spanish border. It resulted in the exposure and cleaning of an exceptional surface of 40 square meters with a very vast ichnofossil accumulation, reaching a maximum of 2,000 individual specimens by square metre. All of them correspond to horizontal sections of conical structures created by the spiral displacement of steeply inclined J-shaped burrows, assigned to the arthrophycid forms Daedalus halli (Rouault) and Daedalus labechei (Rouault). Both ichnotaxa are widely known in the "Armorican Quartzite" facies of the Lower Ordovician of SW Europe, where massive occurrences reflect opportunistic colonization events on storm generated sandstones. The spectacular bedding plane concentration of these conical burrows in the locality, and the good preservation of the active backfill on their typical spreite (wing-like) structure, is currently being mapped with the purpose of determining the mathematical model underlying the burrowing pattern and ecospace interaction between the sedimentivorous producers. Anyway, this outstanding palaeontological site of the "pedras escrevidas" has no other counterpart in the world, and is of undisputable value for the Iberian geological heritage. In the near future the locality will be protected and included in the touristic programmes and guides enhancing the natural heritage of the Montesinho Natural Park. The detailed ichnological study of this outcrop is being financed through the PATRIORSI project of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (CGL2006-07628/BTE, years 2006-2009) and by the project "Identification, Characterization and Conservation of Geological Heritage: a Geoconservation strategy for Portugal", sponsored by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (PTDC/CTEGEX/ 64966/2006, years 2006-2009)

O geopatrimónio de montanhas ocidentais do Norte-Centro de Portugal e da falha Verín-Penacova. Livro-guia da visita do III Encontro Luso-Brasileiro de Património Geomorfológico e Geoconservação

Trabalho cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) e por fundos nacionais através da FCT, no âmbito do projeto Refª FCT UID/GEO/04084/2019

New records in old material : preliminary data on Floian Acritarchs : a surprising new world in the Nery Delgado Collection at the Geological Museum, Portugal

Nery Delgado (1835-1908) was one of the pioneers of Portuguese geology. In 1857, the Geological Survey of Portugal (GSP) was created as a section of the Geodesic Service of the Public Works Ministry. N. Delgado was involved since the beginning; he worked as an adjunct and during the year 1882 was nominated head of the survey. Due to his scientific contributions, N. Delgado participated in the major developments of nineteenth-century geology. The lithological and palaeontological samples collected by N. Delgado are placed at the Geological Museum, integrating the N. Delgado collection, belonging to the LNEG-LGM, the institution which inherited the legacy of more than 150 years of geological research carried out by the GSP. Following the program that commemorates the 100 years after the death of N. Delgado, preliminary palynostratigraphic research was established in several samples from the N. Delgado collection, that allowed the discovery of a surprising new world in the old material of the Geological Museum. Investigated samples are from the Xistos com Phyllodocites Formation from the Mestre André quarry (Barrancos village). This rock unit crops out in the Estremoz-Barrancos sector of the Ossa Morena Zone (Southeast of Portugal) and consists of dark, green and reddish micaceous shales and siltstones. The upper part also contains psammites with abundant ichnofossil genera, such as Phyllodocites, Nereites, Dictyodora, Palaeophycus and Gordia genera. These uppermost levels yielded the graptolites Expansograptus sparsus and E. hirundo that indicates a late Floian age. The trace fossil assemblage and the graptolites indicate an offshore shelf depositional environment. The first determination on acritarchs in the upper levels of the Xistos com Phyllodocites Fm are from 1988, when Cunha & Vanguestaine recovered in two samples, from an outcrop along the road Sto Aleixo-Barrancos (Km 94,2), a moderated preserved assemblage assigned to the Floian-Dapingian boundary. The preliminary age determinations based on acritarchs, from the Mestre André quarry, are here presented. The acritarch assemblages are abundant and very well preserved and contain Acanthodiacrodium costatum, Acanthodiacrodium uniforme, Arbusculidium filamentosum, Coryphidium bohemicum, Polygonium sp., Steeliferidium stelligerum, Striatotheca principalis parva, S. rugosa, Veryhachium lairdii and V. trispinosum suggesting a mid late Floian age, that confirms the preceding age determinations

The International Year of Planet Earth in Portugal : past activities and further developments

The Portuguese National Committee for the IYPE was created in the framework of the Portuguese National Commission for UNESCO, in April 2007. The Committee incorporated the contributions of 220 private and public organizations, mainly municipalities and educational institutions of all levels, and sponsored more than 500 activities since then. The Scientific Programme emphasized relevant cooperation between Earth scientists from the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, under the guidance of their National Committees (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde and Mozambique). In consideration of the community of 230 million Portuguese speaking people, the Portuguese National Committee translated and printed the twelve brochures produced by IUGS- UNESCO, posted them on the official website (www.anoplaneta-terra.org), and supported several editions also in Braille, in order to make Earth sciences readily accessible to all citizens. As a result of these accomplishments during the IYPE triennium (2007-2009), the Portuguese National Committee was invited by the UNESCO-IUGS Corporation to co-organize Planet Earth Lisbon ́09, the Global Closure Event of the IYPE, which took place in Lisbon, 20th to 22nd November 2009

Unidades litoestratigráficas do Ordovícico da região de trás-os-Montes (Zona Centro-Ibérica, Portugal)

A recente realizacão de trabalhos, centrados no estabelecimento da bioestratigrafia do Ordovícico do nordeste de Portugal (Zona Centro Ibérica), conduziu a uma profunda revisão litoestratigráfica destes materiais, à luz dos requerimentos litoestratigráficos estabelecidos pelo Guia Estratigráfico Internacional e justificada pela grande proliferação de unidades informais e divisões operativas existentes na região. Esta nova proposta, unificada para a região transmontana, contempla a definição formal de um total de 19 unidades litoestratigráficas, a maioria das quais de natureza sili-ciclástica, repartidas por um grupo, oito formações, sete membros e três camadas. Este estudo permitiu caracterizar e contextualizar diversas unidades atribuídas ao Ordovícico Superior, até agora praticamente ignoradas na região, assim como a detecção de lacunas estratigráficas de grande interesse paleogeográfico. O novo esquema litoestratigráfico, agora apresentado, permite correlacionar de forma precisa e nivelar o conhecimento relativamente à restante Zona Centro Ibérica Portuguesa (Valongo, Buçaco, Amêndoa Mação) e ao restante Ordovícico do sudoeste da Europa

Recent geoethical issues in Moroccan and Peruvian Paleontology

The cases of Joan Corbacho from Spain, and Klaus Hönninger and Carlos A. Vildoso from Peru, considered by some as prestig-ious paleontologists in their countries, are discussed here. The first one is a fossil collector and trader that, without a minimal scientific knowledge, published ca. 20 papers with proposals for a dozen new trilobite taxa coming from different Paleozoic for-mations in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas. Descriptions of new taxa seem formally valid but are rather inadequate, often based on poorly preserved material of dubious geological provenance, and mostly published as papers without peer review in a local jour-nal, managed by a private museum connected to the Seminary of Barcelona. Besides this, part of the published and figured tri-lobite specimens were later offered for sale in the internet, sometimes accompanied with a ‘certificate of authenticity’ signed by the Museum director. Mr. Corbacho is acting also in Spain as a judicial expert in paleontology while he is not more than an amateur fossil collector. In Peru, the two cited pseudo-paleontologists lead their official-looking businesses, the ‘Meyer-Hönninger Palaeontological Museum’ and the ‘Peruvian Institute of Paleovertebrate Studies’, respectively, under names of institutional appearance. The ‘scientific research’ activities of Mr. Hönninger have been basically deactivated by authorities of the Ministry of Culture, and following a public complaint for fraud in the First International Symposium of Palaeontology of Peru held in 2014 in Lima. However, the dealings of the Mr. Vildoso, who has long claimed to have a title on Paleontology from the University of La Plata (Argentina), which he has never been able to show, has experienced a considerable increase, with paleontological heritage contracts with mining companies and the organization of the Dakar Rally. The prominence of the posi-tion he has attained is such that he was offered the presidency of the Organizing Committee of the IX Latin American Congress of Palaeontology held in 2016 in Lima, which has ended in an organization disaster and a money scandal

Arouca Geopark: a new project towards the sustainable development based on the conservation and promotion of the geological heritage

A figura de Geoparque surgiu, na Europa, nos finais dos anos noventa. Actualmente, a maior parte dos Geoparques entretanto criados encontra-se neste continente, apesar do desafio da UNESCO para o estabelecimento de Geoparques em todo o mundo. Neste trabalho apresenta-se, de modo breve, um projecto em curso que dará origem à candidatura do “Geoparque Arouca” (Distrito de Aveiro) à Rede Europeia de Geoparques.The Geopark concept emerged during the nineties. Presently, the majority of the Geoparks are located in Europe in spite of the recent UNESCO challenge towards the implementation of new Geoparks in other continents. This work outlines a new project under development created to prepare a submission of the future “Arouca Geopark” (Aveiro District) to the European Geoparks Network