Aline Marcele Ghilardi

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte | IIP · Departamento de Geologia

Purussaurus brasiliensis thrived in the northwestern portion of South America during the Late Miocene. Although substantial material has been recovered since its early discovery, this fossil crocodilian can still be considered as very poorly understood. In the present work, we used regression equations based on modern crocodilians to present novel...

Here we describe a new record of a sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Barremian) Rio Piranhas Formation, Sousa Basin, NE Brazil. Dinosaur fossil bones from this deposit were unknown until now. Thus, the discovery of a sauropod fibula from this locality is highly significant. Our discovery represents an indeterminate titanosaur...

Spinosaurinae are known to have a strong relationship with aquatic environments, involving several anatomical adaptations. Nonetheless, this group of theropods remains enigmatic, due to the relative incompleteness of its fossil record. A large partial tibia from the Aptian-Albian Romualdo Formation, Northeast Brazil, is herein described through ana...

This research documents for the first time the detailed histological description of severe bone inflammation and the exceptional preservation of soft-bodied parasitical microorganisms inside the vascular canals of a non-avian dinosaur. The results bring new insights into the fields of parasitology, pathology, and histology in the fossil record. A s...

Sampling biases in the fossil record distort estimates of past biodiversity. However, these biases not only reflect the geological and spatial aspects of the fossil record, but also the historical and current collation of fossil data. We demonstrate how the legacy of colonialism and socioeconomic factors, such as wealth, education and political sta...

The Serrote do Letreiro Site, found on the northwest periphery of the Sousa Basin, Brazil, presents a remarkable convergence of paleontological and archaeological elements. It is constituted of sub-horizontal "lajeiros", or rock outcrops, intermingled with Caatinga vegetation. The two prominent outcrops feature fossilized footprints of theropod, sa...

Museums featuring dinosaur fossils have always attracted the attention of the crowd. However, sustaining public interest in science becomes more challenging year after year, even for popular attractions, calling for changes in how exhibits appear in the face of new technologies. To enrich the user’s experience and enhance the exhibition’s attractiv...

Muitas pessoas compreendem fenômenos de assédio como um ato isolado ou contínuo entre dois indivíduos: assediador e assediado. Neste caso, seriam atos de perversão e violência de uma pessoa em relação a outra pessoa. Sabemos que relações hierárquicas, em ambientes de trabalho, estabelecem relações de poder. Neste sentido, são relações interpessoais...

Early diagenesis of fossil plants, especially of their reproductive structures, provides essential information about the evolution of the group. In this study, we describe the morphology and early fossil diagenesis of isolated eudicot seeds collected in neosols (entisols) derived from limestones of Romualdo Formation, Araripe Basin, Brazil. They we...

One of the most remarkable features in sauropod dinosaurs relates to their pneu-matized skeletons permeated by a bird-like air sac system. Many studies described the late evolution and diversification of this trait in mid to late Meso-zoic forms but few focused on the origin of the invasive respiratory diverticula in sauropodomorphs. Fortunately, i...

It can be arduous to discriminate between lamellar bone fibres, Sharpey's fibres (tendon insertions) and the pneumosteum (air sac diverticula interaction with the bone) during histological observations. We analysed thin sections of several avemetatarsalians from the Cretaceous of Brazil and used characters from optical mineralogy to differentiate t...

A Formação Botucatu (Cretáceo Inferior) é mundialmente conhecida pelos registros paleoicnológicos produzidos por animais que habitaram um imenso paleoerg durante o início do Cretáceo. Os arenitos eólicos desta unidade afloram em diversos estados brasileiros, do centro ao sul do país. Recentemente, uma laje de arenito da Formação Botucatu apresentan...

The origin of the air sac system present in birds has been an enigma for decades. Skeletal pneumaticity related to an air sac system is present in both derived non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs. But the question remained open whether this was a shared trait present in the common avemetatarsalian ancestor. We analyzed three taxa from the Late Trias...

Echinoids from Jandaíra Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Potiguar Basin, Northeastern Brazil. The present paper analyzes the studies about fossil echinoids from the Jandaíra Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Potiguar Basin, Northeastern Brazil, with the purpose of showing the current knowledge about the species of the geological unit. The bibliography was o...

A Paleontologia tem obtido destaque no cenário nacional e internacional nas últimas décadas. O Brasil tornou-se polo importante de pesquisas na área e tem contribuído significativamente para o conhecimento acerca de nosso passado. Entretanto, conteúdos sobre Paleontologia geralmente não são incluídos e trabalhados nas salas de aula brasileira da Ed...

Titanosaurian sauropods are known to exhibit remarkable body size disparity, with some taxa famed for nearing the zenith of terrestrial vertebrate body size. Here, we describe a new titanosaurian – Ibirania parva gen. et sp. nov. – from the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian– Campanian) São José do Rio Preto Formation of Bauru Basin, in which represents o...

By studying fossil bite traces, we can reconstruct the behaviour of extinct organisms and better understand past communities, environments, and ecosystems. In this paper, we analyse bite traces on a fragmented sauropod rib from the Upper Cretaceous of the Bauru Basin, southeastern Brazil. The fossil was collected in the Ibirá municipality, São Paul...

A ilustração de história natural constitui uma valiosa ferramenta para estudos paleontológicos, por permitir a reconstrução de organismos e ambientes pretéritos. No presente trabalho, foi realizada a reconstrução artístico-científica de †Mesosaurus tenuidens por meio da adaptação da metodologia do paleodesign ao desenho bidimensional. Foi gerada gr...

The Botucatu Formation (Paraná Basin) is an eolian deposit that represents an extensive paleoerg that existed in the south-central Gondwana during the Early Cretaceous. The fossil record of the unit is almost exclusively constituted of ichnofossils, including numerous tracks and burrows of vertebrates and invertebrates. The greatest trace fossil di...

Resumen gráfico de "Excavando más profundo en las prácticas paleontológicas coloniales en el México y Brasil modernos"

Resumo gráfico de "Aprofundando-se nas práticas colonialistas da paleontologia no México e no Brasil dos dias atuais"

Graphical abstract for "Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil"

Scientific practices stemming from colonialism, whereby middle- and low-income countries supply data for high-income countries and the contributions of local expertise are devalued, are still prevalent today in the field of palaeontology. In response to these unjust practices, countries such as Mexico and Brazil adopted protective laws and regulati...

Traducción completa al castellano del artículo original.

Tradução completa ao português do artigo original.

Versão integral traduzida do artigo "Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil", publicado na revista Royal Society Open Science em março de 2022. Essa versão em Português faz parte do material suplementar do artigo original.

Full presentation in English (with PT-BR subtitles) + 1 min. intro in Portuguese. Also available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXdzTGAwB24

This study reports the occurrence of pneumosteum (osteohistological structure related to an avian-like air sac system) in a nanoid (5.7-m-long) saltasaurid titanosaur from Upper Cretaceous Brazil. We corroborate the hypothesis of the presence of an air sac system in titanosaurians based upon vertebral features identified through external observatio...

Most publications on Brazil’s Araripe Basin fossils led by non-Brazilian authors do not report extraction and/or export permits, sometimes even admitting the fossils were commercially acquired (e.g. Irritator challengeri, Susisuchus anatoceps, Ludodactylus sibbicki, Lacusovagus magnificens, Unwindia trigonus, and Tapejara navigans). This represents...

To the Editor — The dinosaur fossil ‘Ubirajara jubatus’ was allegedly exported from Brazil in 1995 and is currently held by State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (SMNK) in Germany. It has attracted the attention of the scientific community not only because of its intrinsic interest but also for the controversy surrounding its export from Brazil...

Not every audience actively consumes formal science communication products such as documentaries, books, and social media channels. These are the most vulnerable people to misinformation and misleading disclosures of the Post-Truth Era. Entertainment is a well-known venue to discuss such themes with people not usually interested in science. Worried...

This poster shows the results of a science communication action executed between 2020 and early 2021 in the YouTube channel "Colecionadores de Ossos". The results that follow were presented at the SVP 2021 Annual Meeting.

Covid-19 pandemic brought up a new reality. People are staying longer at home, personal contact ceased or decreased and the exchange of significant social experiences was substantially reduced. Many count exclusively on the internet to connect with other people and several psychological disorders arouse from social isolation. In this project, we us...

This document contains the plain language summaries for the study:Raja, N. B., Dunne, E. M., Matiwane, A., Khan, T. M., Nätscher, P. S., Ghilardi, A. M., and Chattopadhyay, D. (2021). Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity. EarthArxiv. https://doi.org/10.31223/X5802N

This document contains the references for the data sources used in the study: Raja, N. B., Dunne, E. M., Matiwane, A., Khan, T. M., Nätscher, P. S., Ghilardi, A. M., and Chattopadhyay, D. (2021). Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity. EarthArxiv. https://doi.org/10.31223/X5802N

The Permian lycopsid Lycopodiopsis derbyi Renault, 1890 (Lemoigne and Brown 1980) Faria et al. (2009) is an abundant plant that inhabited the margins of the Paraná Basin under semi-arid and sometimes hypersaline environmental conditions of late Permian. Here we study a remarkable and unprecedented assemblage, with stems attributed to Lycopodiopsis...

Sampling variations in the fossil record distort estimates of past biodiversity. However, compilations of global fossil occurrences used in these analyses not only reflect the geological and spatial aspects of the fossil record, but also the historical collation of these data. Here, we demonstrate how the legacy of colonialism as well as socio-econ...

Theropod tooth crowns are abundant in the Upper Cretaceous (post-Coniacian) continental deposits of the Bauru Group, Brazil. The distribution of anatomical crown features indicates that a variety of carnivorous dinosaurs inhabited the area at that time, which is consistent with fossil records from other parts of Gondwana. More specifically, some au...

There is a necessity to systematically sample taxa to enlighten our knowledge on the presence of histological correlates of avian-like air sacs among dinosaurs. This work expands the studies on the occurrence of pneumosteum in sauropods to the Brazilian lithostrotian titanosaur 'Uberabatitan ribeiroi'. This confirms previous hypotheses on the inser...

The 'Colecionadores de Ossos' is the largest web of social media on geosciences independently created and maintained by actual professionals in the field. The data here released is result of several years of integrative work between a blog, Facebook page and YouTube channel. On contrary of what is affirmed by the media on the juvenile interest on d...

Spinosaurinae are known to have a strong relationship with aquatic environments, involving several anatomical adaptations. Nonetheless, this group of theropods remains enigmatic, due to the relative incompleteness of its fossil record. A large partial tibia from the Aptian-Albian Romualdo Formation, Northeast Brazil, is herein described through ana...

A Paleontologia possui grande atratividade para o público por proporcionar a contemplação da História Natural através das evidências fósseis. O conhecimento dessa disciplina é recomendado pelos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais e é crescentemente discutido na literatura especializada. Dentro desse panorama, tem se que uma tradução acurada dos dados...

During the Early Cretaceous, a large area in Brazil and other South American countries was covered by an extensive paleoerg field, the Botucatu Desert. The Araraquara County (São Paulo State, Brazil) contains some of the most diverse ichnological assemblages in the Botucatu Formation. Mammaliform trace fossils from the Botucatu Formation are of gre...

Botucatu Formation is a paleoerg, worldwide famous for its vertebrate and invertebrate ichnofossils. Among Botucatu Formation tetrapod tracks, ichnogenus Brasilichnium Leonardi, 1981 is well known, being generally attributed to mammaliform trackmakers. In this study a new ichnotaxon is described, Brasilichnium saltatorium isp. nov., characterized b...

A Paleontologia pode ser vista como uma ciência de grande atratividade para o público por permitir o vislumbre da vastidão do tempo geológico e da biodiversidade ao longo da história da vida na Terra. O conhecimento dessa disciplina é recomendado pelos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais, quando se mencionam as biotas pretéritas no registro fóssil. D...

Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating was applied to date a sample of fossil tooth found in Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, Brazil. This region is characterized by abundant fossil records of Pleistocene–Holocene South American megafauna belonging to different faun-istic moments related to climate changes during the quaternary. As the number of fossils da...

Limestone and marl from Maria Farinha Formation (Paraíba Basin, NE Brazil) accumulated in a shallow continental shelf environment during the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean in early Paleocene (Danian). It contains a rich paleontological record, which comprises many marine invertebrates, several species of bony and cartilaginous fishes, a crocodylif...

The Araripe Basin portion located in the Pernambuco state of Brazil has excellent Santana Formation outcrops. This internationally known unit has provided some of the most important concretion preserved vertebrate fossils of the Lower Cretaceous (~110 Ma) Gondwana. Although this region has its potential for fossil collecting eased by the gypsum ext...

O Araripe pernambucano tem excelentes exposições de rochas da Formação Santana, Bacia Sedimentar do Araripe (PE, CE e PI), reconhecida internacionalmente pelos fósseis de vertebrados, preservados em concreções, considerados entre os mais importantes do supercontinente Gondwana (110 Ma). Embora a região tenha excelente potencial para coleta e estudo...

Purussaurus brasiliensis thrived in the northwestern portion of South America during the Late Miocene. Although substantial material has been recovered since its early discovery, this fossil crocodilian can still be considered as very poorly understood. In the present work, we used regression equations based on modern crocodilians to present novel...

This research describes a pterosaur remain from the Aptian/Albian Romualdo Formation collected on a new potential site at the southernmost portion of the Araripe Basin. The specimen (DGEO-CTG-UFPE 7516) consists of three-dimensionally preserved ulna that shows morphological affinities with the Pteranodontoidea and is tentatively referred to Anhangu...

The Paraíba Basin is located in the coastal region of the states of Paraíba and Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil. Its origin is related to the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean and its sedimentary sequence stands out as it includes records of the Cretaceous/Paleogene transition. The basin is divided into the Beberibe (Turonian-Campanian/Late Creta...

Ichnofossils contribute to paleoenvironmental and paleoecological interpretations through geological time, as-well-as enable the study of the behavior of extinct organisms and the sedimentological conditions of ancient environments. The Botucatu Formation covers most of the Paraná Basin and is recognized as Neocomian in age, being one of the larges...

The karst region of the Upper Ribeira Valley has a rich fossil record of the Quaternary Period. At least 15 species of megamammals, typical from the Pleistocene age, have been found in its deposits. From this ancestral diversity, little remains. What would have been responsible for the local extinctions? This work discusses what the fossil record o...

Few formal studies have been done about how paleontology is perceived by the public. Perhaps the reason is that very few professional paleontologists have concerned themselves with public opinion. Generally, they are absorbed by their research topic or more concerned with grant proposals. However, public support is necessary for reinforcing and dev...

The carbonate caves of the Upper Ribeira Valley, southeastern São Paulo State, Brazil, preserve an abundant fossil record of Pleistocene-Holocene South American megafauna. Nevertheless, in comparison with other localities of the country, its paleontological knowledge still can be considered sparse and in need of further research. This work presents...