The Ichnological Record of Araraquara Sidewalks: History, Conservation, and Perspectives from This Urban Paleontological
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Ichnological Record of Araraquara Sidewalks: History, Conservation, and Perspectives from This Urban Paleontological Heritage of Southeastern Brazil Heitor Francischini 1 & Marcelo Adorna Fernandes 2 & Josiane Kunzler 3 & Robson Rodrigues 3 & Giuseppe Leonardi 4 & Ismar de Souza Carvalho 5 Received: 1 November 2019 / Accepted: 20 May 2020 # The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2020
Abstract The city of Araraquara in southeastern Brazil is unique regarding its paleontological record. Flagstones have been quarried from eolianites (Botucatu Formation, Lower Cretaceous) since the beginning of the twentieth century and used to pave and cover public and private spaces of the city. As a consequence, fossil tracks and traces (ichnofossils) of invertebrates, early mammals, and dinosaurs are widely distributed in the flagstones that pave the sidewalks of the city, right under the feet of Araraquara’s inhabitants. In this paper we aimed to characterize this unique fossil record, focusing on the main trace morphotypes and their conservation. In a survey conducted in 2007–2008, 585 trace fossil-bearing flagstones were identified across Araraquara, much of which are moderately to poorly preserved. Nevertheless, optimally preserved (elite) traces of very high scientific potential were also recorded. The present study also includes a history of investigations conducted regarding these materials and discusses different aspects, difficulties, and peculiarities of conservation efforts towards this urban paleontological heritage, including some recently achieved goals. Keywords Paleontological heritage . Ichnology . Dinosaur tracks . Botucatu Formation . Cretaceous . Urban heritage
Introduction The Botucatu Formation (Lower Cretaceous of the Paraná Basin, Brazil) is known by its abundant ichnofauna composed by invertebrate traces, tetrapod tracks, and other less obvious ichnofossils (e.g., Leonardi 1980, 1981, 1994; Leonardi and Godoy 1980; Leonardi and Sarjeant 1986; Fernandes et al.
* Heitor Francischini [email protected] 1
Laboratório de Paleontologia de Vertebrados, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
2
Laboratório de Paleoecologia e Paleoicnologia, Departamento de Ecologia e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil
3
Fundação Araporã, Araraquara, SP, Brazil
4
Cavanis Institute, Venice, Italy
5
Departamento de Geologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
1990; Fernandes et al. 2004; Fernandes and Carvalho 2007, 2008; Leonardi et al. 2007; Francischini et al. 2015). The optimal preservation of some of these specimens achieved international recognition, making this unit an important comparison basis for studies on ancient fauna in desert environments (e.g., Lockley and Hunt 1995; Lockley 2011; Krapovickas et al. 2016). The outcropping deposits of the Botucatu Formation have been wi
