RE: new site bearing dinosaur remains found in Brazil

[Renato Santos <dracontes@hotmail.com>]

Since online translators such as Babelfish, despite how well they are 
constructed, tend to give quite crappy translations here is the analogical 
version.

---«»---
Geologist Finds Dinosaur "Mine" In The Brazillian Northeast

Thanks to a tremendous stroke of luck, Rio Grande do Norte and Rio do 
Janeiro researchers stumbled upon a 3 kilometer area littered with dinosaur 
fossils in that northeastern state [Rio Grande do Norte, just a little 
further south along the coast from the Amazon delta]

It's the first record of the pre-historic megarreptiles[sic] in the region, 
and the preliminary analysis is revealing at least three diferent types of 
herbivores and carnivores, besides crocodiles and fish.

"It isn't needed for one to be a paleontologist to wonder about unknown 
species as the material is very abundant" said Francisco Pinheiro Lima Filho 
from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte(UFRN).

Teaming up with co-workers from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 
(UFRJ), the Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN) and the 
Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense (UENF), he took part on a field 
trip that identified the dino graveyard just 15 days ago.

Lima Filho was interested in going to the site for two years after he 
visited the area to do a geological survey supported by Petrobras [the 
national petroleum company of Brazil]. During that field trip they spotted a 
large vertebra but didn't think much of it as Rio Grande do Norte is known 
for other megafaunal remains such as of ground sloths and mastodons [?!? 
Mastodons in South America?].

The geologist presented the vertebra to an ex-student of his, the 
paleontologist Maria Fátima dos Santos, from the UFRN Câmara Cascudo Museum. 
A quick look was all that was needed to confrim the dinosaurian nature of 
the fossil.

"At that time" the researcher muses "a small light turned on". Lacking was 
the funding needed to get specialist to go to the site for which Lima Filho 
had to wait until the beginning of this year.

As the place where the vertebra was collected was registered with a GPS 
device there was no difficulty in finding the site and for the geologist to 
re-examine it with the help of paleontologist Lilian Paglarelli Bergqvist 
from the UFRJ and other researchers.

The vertebra had rolled down from its original location but it wasn't 
difficult to find much bigger fossils, including 1,5-meter femurs. Some 
fossils were still enclosed in the matrix and the team quickly found a great 
variety of teeth, which are a good indicator of the group the animal 
sporting them belonged to.

Refering to the teeth and the femurs, Carlos Roberto dos Anjos Candeiro, 
doctorate student of Bergqvist in UFRJ identified at least three types of 
dinos from the Potiguar Basin Formation [done a bit of editing to make this 
a bit more comprehensible] carcharodontosaurids, abelisaurids and 
diplodocoids.

One of the last brazillian dinosaurs to be described was Amazonsaurus 
maranhensis, measuring 10 m in length was a diplodocoid. The faunal 
assemblage is similar to the one found in Africa, continent that maintained 
conections with South America at that time.

The fossil-bearing strata belong to the Potiguar Basin Fm. dating from the 
Cenomanian, some 90 million years ago. The area at that time was a large 
estuary [large river-mouth in literal translation].

The researchers are seeking Petrobras's support in the detailed study of the 
fossil beds. While the funding isn't available the exact location of the 
fossil site is going to be kept secret to avoid the same wrong-doings done 
in the Araripe [remember Irritator challengeri?].

To paleontologist Carlos Roberto Candeiro, the fossils found in the site 
suggest that the Brazillian and African faunas still maintained contact 
despite the big separation between Africa an South America at that time.

"Material from Maranhão, which is almost co-eval, also shows those 
similarities to Africa" states Candeiro. An example of it is the presence of 
carcharodontosaurids, common in regions such as Morrocco. According to the 
researcher one can expect more new species from this site.
---«»---

I think it keeps to the original intent of the text though I've upgraded the 
reading level a bit since I think most people here can understand the 
jargon. Anyway I apologize for any spelling mistakes or grammatic blunders, 
but this took quite a while to make and I just can't bother to spell check.

Renato Santos,

My online art gallery:
http://dracontes.deviantart.com
Comments and critics are appreciated.

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