Paleorrota



Paleorrota (Paleoroute in English), is a geopark located in the center of the state of the Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, along which are found Triassic rocks and fossils, from a time when there was only the continent Pangaea.

The route is located within a vast area that belongs to the period called the Triassic (Late, Middle and Early) and Late Permian ages and which have varied between 210 and 270 million years ago. The Geopark has several paleontological sites, which belongs to rock formation Santa Maria, Caturrita, Sanga do Cabral, Rio do Rastro and Irati. These sites are found the fossils of ancient vertebrates, with a diverse fauna. In the southwest of the geopark are found fossils that date to the Permian, 270 million years ago.

The Staurikosaurus was the first Brazilian dinosaur to be discovered, and was collected in Santa Maria in Paleontological Site Jazigo Cinco, by paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price.

The city of Mata, together with the cities of São Pedro do Sul and Santa Maria, form a large deposit of petrified trees. In an area of more than 70 km², there are several deposits of fossils of petrified trees.

At the end of the Permian, 95% of the life on Earth disappeared at the event known as Permian–Triassic extinction. In the Triassic, life began to change, shaping all new species that would follow. The region has already made great contributions to the understanding of these changes:


 * Staurikosaurus which is one of the oldest saurischians.
 * Sacisaurus which may be the oldest ornithischian.
 * Pelycosaurs gave rise to cynodonts, which led to mammals. The Geopark has much to contribute to understand the Evolution of mammals.

CAPPA - Research Center for Support of Palaeontology
CAPPA (Research Center for Support of Palaeontology) or (Centro de Apoio a Pesquisa Paleontológica), in Portuguese. Located near the Monument of Nossa Senhora da Salete, near of highway RS 149, in the city of São João do Polêsine, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The center will have a museum, research centers, laboratories, auditorium, classroom, place of lodging, restaurant and various services to be offered to visitors, researchers and students who study in the paleontology. It will be a center of support for the search geopark of Paleorrota.

The center will have an approximate area of 2.649m², and is divided into three stages of construction, while the first is already fully built. It is a work which has the sponsorship of Petrobras and Eletrobras.

History
Source: UFSM and UFRGS.

1902 saw the first paleontological searches in Santa Maria, with the collection of fossils organic petrifieds by Dr. Jango Fischer, in the vicinity of the Mount of Alemoa, a region of rocky outcrops between the city and the then district of Camobi. Jango Fischer, in 1902, collected some remains and sent them to Prof. Dr. Hermann von Ihering, then director of the Museum in São Paulo. They were three vertebral bodies almost complete, a piece of vertebra, a finger of four phalanges, and an ungual alone. Von Ihering, in turn, referred the material to Arthur Smith Woodward, eminent paleontologist at the British Museum of London, for study. This resulted in the determination of the first terrestrial reptile fossil in South America, the rhynchosaur baptized by Woodward with the name of Scaphonyx fischeri, the generic name given in reference to the excavation and claw feature, and the specific name in homage to Jango Fischer, the discoverer of the remains.

From then, the international scientific attention focused mostly on Santa Maria, leading to a series of scientific expeditions. One expedition was conducted by German Friedrich von Huene, in 1928-29, and several expeditions were organized by Llewellyn Ivor Price, of the Bureau of Paleontology of the National Department of Mineral Production of Rio de Janeiro, between the 1930s and 1950s, mainly in paleontological sites near the cities of São Pedro do Sul, Santa Maria and Candelaria. Many fossils collected by Friedrich von Huene are now at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

Many of the fossils collected there should be devoted to work and without major financial resources held by Priest Daniel Cargnin and Priest Abraham Cargnin, which enriched the collections of several museums, like the Museum Vincente Pallotti. In tribute to the recently deceased Priest Daniel Cargnin, several fossils received his name.

From the 1960s, with the creation of the School of Geology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, and then of its Post-Graduate Course in the geological mapping of the state received a large increase, and the palaeontological knowledge of the sedimentary rocks found there.

In the 70's and 80’s in the city of São Pedro do Sul, Walter Ilha, an amateur paleontologist, collected fossils in the region. He also collected bibliographies, books and magazines on paleontology. He struggled to build a museum in the city, and in 1987, he died and the museum took the name of Museum Paleontologic and Archaeological Walter Ilha.

Fossils of the region


The vertebrate fossils are found in the red soil. Depending on the process of fossilization, they will have certain characteristics:


 * Without Calcium carbonate, the fossils have a white color and are easily dissolved in water.
 * With Calcium carbonate, the fossils have the color of brown rust, and have the form of concrete because of the calcium carbonate. When a fossil is with the ideal amount of calcium carbonate, the fossil is not deformed, and does not dissolve in water. But excess of carbonate will deform the fossil, giving it a swollen appearance. If there is a very large quantity of carbonate, the fossil is like a dusty, and that dissolves in water.

Another important feature is caused by the movement of soil. During the millions of years that the fossils are of the low soil, the slow movement of the soil creates ripples in the fossil, or the fossil can be wavy.

Most of the red soil of the region is covered by soil. Only one percent of the red soil is exposed in creeks, streams, lakes and roads.

Legislation
Since the 1940s, federal legislation has protected the fossils as property of the Union. In 2001, state legislation was passed to protect the fossils of Paleorrota. In general, it states:
 * The fossils are a cultural heritage of the state.
 * The fossils can only be collected by paleontologists or technicians who are working for officially recognized institutions.
 * Foreign institutions are only to support an institution's search state.
 * A visit to Sites Paleontologics can only be performed with the accompaniment of someone authorized.
 * Transport of fossils can only be done with authorization, with guarantee of return.
 * The only economic purposes to be carried out are tours with authorized guides.

The legislation completes this in Brazilian Society of Paleontology.