RESUMOS - UNESP - Rio Claro

II Encontro dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, 2008
PALEOVERTEBRATES FROM THE GOIÁS STATE
PEDRO OLIVEIRA PAULO
E-mail: pedro@rc.unesp.br
Orientador: Prof. Dr. Reinaldo José Bertini
The Paleozoic strata, in the Goiás State, containing fossil vertebrates, up to now are
restricted to the Irati and Corumbataí formations. The first one, from the Lower Permian
Period, have yielded a vast number of mesosaurid remains. The second, Middle Permian
in age, also outcrops on Central Goiás State, presenting some isolated and fragmented
undescribed fish remains (teeth and scales).
There are some areas in Brazil where, considering Upper Cretaceous strata, show
several representative remains of a significative biotic diversity. One of the most
important of these areas is the Bauru Basin, divided in two lithostratigraphic units,
named Caiuá and Bauru groups. As one of the most expressive continental fossil
assemblages from Brazil, the Bauru Group contains fossils associated to strata formed
in depositional enviroments, mainly fluvial and lacustrine, covering areas in the states
of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná and São Paulo. The
Bauru Group has an expressive occurrence on the Southern-Central portion of the Goiás
State, where there are some Adamantina and Marília Formations outcrops. The
Adamantina Formation has furnished several remains of vertebrate fossils, such as
fishes, testudines, lacertilians, crocodyliforms, theropodomorphs, sauropods and
mammals, from Minas Gerais and São Paulo states. Otherwise the Marília Formation
occurs in the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo. It has been rich in fossil
remains, representing a wide array of taxons, such fishes, testudines, crocodyliforms,
maniraptoriforms and sauropodomorphs. Despite both Marília and Adamantina
formations, rich in fossil vertebrates, occur in the Goiás State, the fossil record related
to these Cretaceous sequences only mentions some fossil localities, presenting citations,
not descriptions of materials, about remains associated to theropodomorphs and
sauropodomorphs. Therefore in these circumstances one may suppose that there are
some regions on Southern-Central Goiás State that could shelter interesting
prospectable vertebrate fossil outcrops. Then detailed searching and prospecting in these
litostratigraphic units of the Bauru Basin, on the Goiás State, could yield new fossil
remains, aiding to improve our understanding of the paleoecological, biochronological,
paleobiogeographical comparisons to the vertebrate faunas previously revered in the
Bauru Basin, especially from Minas Gerais and São Paulo states. In the same way it
would also permit paleoecological, biochronological, paleobiogeographical
comparisons to the Cambambe Group area, not associated to the Bauru Basin, located
on the Mato Grosso State, until now not well known.
Besides there are some areas, in the Goiás State, that have furnished some remains of
fossil mammals, from both Pleistocene and sub-Holocene epochs.
So this study aims to outline the vertebrate fossil fauna of this part of the Central Brazil,
comprehending Permian and Cretaceous periods, besides Pleistocene Epoch. All
bibliographic records about these groups, as well as detailed analysis of the housed
materials in some institutional collections spread through Brazil, will improve our
knowledge and understanding of the fossil vertebrates occurrences in the Goiás State,
81