Virtual Posters

During the XXV OPERANTAR (2006 – 2007), an expedition of seven researches from the Museu Nacional/UFRJ and two alpinists carried out the first Brazilian paleontological field work at the James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Named Project PALEOANTAR this expedition was funded by the CNPq and had the main purpose to collect fossils and rocks in order to provide a better understanding of the ancient paleoecossistems present in this area during the Late Cretaceous. The team set camp for 37 days at the base of the Bibby Point Plateau in the northwest portion of the island and explored the outcrops of the Marambio and Gustav groups. Most of the fossil vertebrates collected by PALEOANTAR project were collected at the Abernethy Flats, where the Lachman Crags and Herbert Sound members of the Santa Marta Formation crop out. These represent, mid to outer shelf and shallow inner shelf environments respectively.
Among the fossil vertebrates are the remains of the oldest (ca. 85 Mya) plesiosaur from Antarctica known so far, as well as sharks teeth.. The plesiosaur (MN 7163-V) consists of nineteen fragmentary vertebrae, including six cervical and two caudal elements; parts of a propodial and some of the paddle elements. Despite the incompleteness of the specimen, the cervicals indicate that MN 7163-V is the first non-elasmosaurid plesiosaur from Antarctica. The morphology of the shark teeth suggests that they represent basal lamnids, which inhabited Late Cretaceous near shore environments of Antarctica, as has been pointed out before. Other findings (invertebrates and plant elements) are presently being studied and will contribute to a better understanding of the Late Cretaceous ecossistems present in Antarctica. Based on the success of the PALEOANTAR project, more field work is been expected to be carried out in the near future in order to recover more paleontological material.