Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
DOI 10.1007/s12371-015-0163-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Paleontological Heritage of the Acre (Amazonia, Brazil):
Contribution Towards a National Paleontological Database
Nei Ahrens Haag 1 & Maria Helena Henriques 2
Received: 10 April 2015 / Accepted: 28 October 2015 / Published online: 18 November 2015
# The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2015
Abstract Acre State is located in the southwest of
Amazonia (Brazil) and is internationally known for its
fossiliferous sites which have yielded well-preserved
fossils of major relevance to the understanding of the
Cenozoic paleofauna of South America, mainly during
the Miocene. In order to preserve this paleontological
heritage and to study the material from the formations
outcropping across south western Amazonia, the
Paleontological Research Laboratory was created in the
1980s at the Federal University of Acre (acronym
UFAC in Portuguese) and houses a collection including
over 4500 catalogued specimens (mainly invertebrates,
fish, reptiles, birds and mammals) and a small
Museum open to the scientific community and to a
wider society. This paper aims to identify the
geoheritage value of the fossil record of Acre, which
is represented by material collected from the Solimões
Formation (Miocene to Pliocene) over the last three de-
cades and stored at the UFAC. The qualitative evalua-
tion system used, which integrates both its scientific and
social uses, can also be applied to other Brazilian col-
lections, in order to create a National Paleontological
* Nei Ahrens Haag
neihaag@ufac.br
* Maria Helena Henriques
hhenriq@dct.uc.pt
1
Geosciences Centre of the University of Coimbra and
Multidisciplinary Centre of the Federal University of Acre, Campus
Floresta, Cruzeiro do Sul, AC 69980-000, Brazil
2
Geosciences Centre of the University of Coimbra and Department of
Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of
Coimbra (Polo II), Rua Sílvio Lima, 3030-790 Coimbra, Portugal
Database, similar to that already developed for
Geological and Paleobiological Sites.
Keywords Paleontological heritage . Amazonia . Acre .
Solimões formation . Brazil
Introduction
Amazonia is the largest and most biodiverse tract of
tropical rainforest in the world (WWF 2015). But this
biodiversity is the result of past events of biotic and
abiotic nature, some of them inscribed in the fossil re-
cord of the rocks underlying the Amazon rainforest.
Being that the fossil record is Bthe repository of the
history of life and the processes that have governed it^
(Bottjer et al. 2002, p. 1), collecting and studying the
fossil record of Amazonia is also seeking to understand
the origins and evolution of its paleobiodiversity
throughout its history, and hence a major step towards
preventing one of the main global problems of the
twenty-first century, that of biodiversity loss (UNDB
2015).
Like paleontological sites, fossil collections housed in
museums and similar organizations are part of the
Earth’s geological heritage (Endere and Prado 2014),
representing geoheritage elements (Brilha 2015) that re-
quire geoconservation measures through the implemen-
tation of specific inventory, evaluation, conservation,
evaluation and monitoring procedures (Henriques et al.
2011).
The Brazilian Federal Constitution (1988) includes
the fossil record of the country as part of its cultural
heritage and is reinforced by several laws and decrees
that aim to regulate the extraction and management of
382
fossils in the territory, based on the concept that pale-
ontological heritage is a key part of the heritage of the
Union (Carmo et al. 2010; Piranha et al. 2011).
Since 1997, the Brazilian Commission of Geological
and Paleobiological Sites has developed an intense pro-
gramme of inventorying and characterization of the
Brazilian paleontological sites that Brepresent an exuber-
ant multiplicity of fossil specimens, either macro- as
micro-animals, vertebrates, invertebrates and plants
(trees, leaves, pollens, petrified forests, etc.), distributed
from the Neoproterozoic up to the Tertiary^ (SIGEP
2015). But to date, among the 37 paleontological sites
already published—17 in the first volume by
Schobbenhaus et al. (2002), 15 in the second volume
by Winge et al. (2009) and five in the third volume
by Winge et al. (2013)—no reference has been made
to the internationally known fossil record of the rich
fossiliferous sites distributed throughout Acre State and
marked in detail on the recently published geological
map of Acre State (with shows 22 paleontological sites;
IBGE 2015). One of the reasons for this absence can be
attributed to the difficult access to these sites, which are
mostly located along tributaries of the Amazon River
and only reachable by boat during the dry season (from
July to September), and the lack of any supporting in-
frastructure for collecting activities in the impenetrable
Amazonian jungle.
The Federal University of Acre (or UFAC) hosts a
paleontological collection with over 4500 catalogued
Fig. 1 The Geological map of the Acre State indicating the main location
of the fossiliferous sites: along the BR 364 highway, the only main road
which crosses E-W the Acre State; and along the NE-SW Amazon River
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
fossil invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals
which have been collected during the last three decades
throughout the State and represent a natural capital
which provides an unique knowledge about the past of
Amazonia (Sookias et al. 2013).
This work describes the Miocene to Pliocene fossil
record collected from the Solimões Formation (Acre
Basin) and characterizes the geoheritage value of the
collection stored at the UFAC using a qualitative eval-
uation system that integrates both its scientific and so-
cial uses (Henriques and Pena dos Reis 2015).
The methodology used for the evaluation of the
Paleontological Heritage of the UFAC collections can
also be applied to other ex situ heritage objects, inte-
grating the geological heritage of the Earth (fossils, but
also minerals and rocks) stored in Brazilian museums
and similar organizations, thus complementing ongoing
site-based geoconservation procedures related to the pa-
leontological heritage of the country, as developed by
the Brazilian Commission of Geological and
Paleobiological Sites (SIGEP 2015).
Geological Setting
The Acre Basin has a total area of 230,000 km2 and is
limited to the northeast by the Iquitos Arch, which sep-
arates it from the Solimões Basin, and to the southeast
by the Madeira Lineament. To the south, the basin is
tributaries, only accessible during the dry season (modified after IBGE
2015)
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
Fig. 1 (continued)
Fig. 2 The western boundary of the Acre Basin (Juruá Lineament) where
the Juruá River joins the Breu River, at the Brazil-Peru border
383
limited by the Brazilian Shield and to the west and
northwest by the Juruá Lineament, which extends into
Peruvian territory (Miura 1972, Cavalcante 2006;
F i g s . 1 a n d 2) . T h e A c r e B a s i n r e co r d s L a t e
Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, as represented by
the Apuí, Cruzeiro do Sul, Rio Moura, Juruá-Mirim,
Moa, Rio Azul, Divisor, Ramon and Solimões forma-
tions (Feijó and Souza 1994; Fig. 3).
The Solimões Formation (Miocene to Pliocene) is a
tabular body of horizontal strata covered by the dense
Amazonian rainforest and is only accessible for study
by boat along the tributaries of the Amazon River (by
boat) and along the BR 364 highway, the only main
road which crosses Acre State E-W (Figs. 3, 4, 5 and
6). It comprises in its lower part very fossiliferous red-
dish pelitic sediments intercalated with siltstones
(Fig. 7), fine grained sandstones, limestones and lignite
(Fig. 8) and is considered to be of predominantly lacus-
trine origin with related anoxic conditions developed
under a tropical climate (Radambrasil 1976; Hoorn
1993; Monsh 1998). The upper part of the formation
is composed of compact sandstones deposited in fluvial
meandriform environments (Eiras et al. 1994) and is
interpreted as tidally and seasonally influenced estuarine
or delta-related and continental strata, where articulated
Purussaurus (a freshwater alligator) fossils have been
found (Gingras et al. 2002; Hovikoski et al. 2008).
The fossil record of the Solimões Formation is internation-
ally known and is very important for a better understanding of
the Cenozoic paleofauna of South America and of the evolu-
tion of the western Amazonian landscape, mainly during the
Miocene (Matti et al. 1995; Webb 1995; Hoorn et al. 2010). In
particular, it can help with elucidating the controversial Late
Cenozoic evolution of the Amazon system (Kronberg et al.
1998; Westaway 2006). Among many other relevant records,
this formation has provided the oldest known occurrence of
fossil primates in Brazil, thus supporting the establishment of
a new genus and species, Solimoea acrensis (Kay and
Cozzuol 2006), and the oldest known species of the
Marsupialia genus Didelphis (Cozzuol et al. 2006).
In order to preserve this paleontological heritage,
some of which is presently stored outside of the coun-
try, and to improve the study of the material from the
various formations outcropping across south western
Amazonia, from the Serra do Divisor (Divisor
Mountain) to the Acre valley, the Paleontological
Research Laboratory (LPP acronym in Portuguese) was
created in the 1980s, at the UFAC (Campus Sede at Rio
Branco), together with a small related Paleontological
Museum open to the scientific community and to the
384
Fig. 3 The stratigraphic record of
the Acre Basin: TR Triassic, JR
Jurassic, K Cretaceous-
Paleogene, T Neogene (modified
after Feijó and Souza 1994)
general public (Fig. 9). In 2005, an extension of the
LPP was created in the Campus Floresta at Cruzeiro
do Sul. With the aim of expanding its infrastructure,
the UFAC, in partnership with the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation, is planning to build a
Museum of Science and Technology, at the university
campus in Rio Branco, where a larger Paleontological
Museum will be established.
The Composition of the Collection
The paleontological collection stored at the LPP of the
UFAC (Campus Sede at Rio Branco, and Campus
Floresta at Cruzeiro do Sul) consists of 4576 specimens
collected from more than 70 fossiliferous sites within
the Solimões Formation which are located throughout
the Acre State, in river banks or along the BR 364
Fig. 4 Aerial view of the Juruá River cutting the dense Amazonian
rainforest. The river provides the only access to most of the
fossiliferous sites of the Solimões Formation
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
highway (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). The collection in-
cludes specimens belonging to Mollusca (Gastropoda
and Bivalvia), Pisces (Chondrichthyes and
Osteichthyes), Reptilia (Testudines and Crocodylia),
Av e s ( P e l e c a n i f o r m e s ) a n d a w i d e v a r i e t y o f
Mammalia (Marsupialia, Chiroptera, Rodentia, Cetacea,
Primata, Proboscidea, Sirenia, Xenarthra, Notoungulata
and Litopterna). Among these, Reptilia correspond to
63.13 % of the inventoried material, followed by
31.73 % for Mammalia, 4.92 % for Pisces and 0.22 %
distributed between Aves and Amphibia (Fig. 10).
Among the Mammalia, the most frequent are
Rodentia (e.g. Paula-Couto 1978; Mones and Toledo
1989; Bocquentin et al. 1990; Negri and Ferigolo
1999; Negri et al. 2010), Xenarthra (e.g. Paula-Couto
1983; Mones 1986; Bocquentin and Guilherme 1999;
Negri 2004; Negri et al. 2010) and Notoungulata (e.g.
Fig. 5 Fossiliferous sites of the Solimões Formation along the Juruá
River
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
Fig. 6 Sampling activities at the Solimões Formation are limited to the
dry season (from July to September) and most of the sites located along
the Amazon River tributaries are only accessible by boat
Paula-Couto 1944, 1976, 1981, 1982; Frailey et al.
1988; Bocquentin and Silva 1994; Negri et al. 2010)
(Fig. 11). Reptiles are quite important due to the diver-
sity of extant forms of crocodilians and turtles.
Crocodilians are represented by the Crocodylidae,
Alligatoridae, Netosuchidae and Gavialidae (e.g.
Barbosa-Rodrigues 1892; Price 1964; Gasparini 1985;
Bocquentin and Souza-Filho 1989, 1990; Souza-Filho
and Bocquentin 1991; Souza-Filho 1998) and included
in 14 species, all extinct. Among them, large species are
recorded, such as Purussaurus brasiliensis (Fig. 12),
Gryposuchus jessei and Mourasuchus amazonensis, and
these are usually on display in the Paleontological
Museum of the UFAC.
Chelonians are represented by the Podocnemidae
(Podocnemys and Stupendemys), Chelidae (Chelus) and
Testudinidae (Chelonoidis) (e.g. Barbosa-Rodrigues
Fig. 7 The fossiliferous reddish
pelitic sediments of the lower part
of the Solimões Formation,
showing remains of an
Alligatoridae skull: a dorsal view;
b lateral view with well-preserved
teeth
385
1892; Campos 1977; Campos and Broin 1981;
Bocquentin and Santos 1989; Broin et al. 1993;
Gaffney et al. 1998; Bocquentin et al. 2001;
Carvalho et al. 2002; Bocquentin and Melo 2006).
Squamata were first referred to by Paula-Couto
(1970), Bocquentin et al. (1996), Latrubesse et al.
(1997), Souza-Filho (1998) and Negri (2004). Hsiou
et al. (2010) have recently confirmed the presence of
snakes (Aniliidae, Boidae e Colubridae), as well as
Iguania (Iguanidae) and Scincomorpha (Teiidae) in
the Solimões Formation, whose remains (vertebrae)
are also part of the UFAC collection.
Piscis are represented by the dipnoic genus
Lepidosiren (Barbosa and Benchimol 1993), by the
families Caracidae (Colossoma genus) and Eritrinidae
(Paleohoplias genus) (e.g. Gayet et al. 2003; Negri
2004) and by the Pimelodidae family represented by
the Phractocephalus genus (Aguilera et al. 2008)
(Fig. 13). In contrast, the fossil record of birds in
the Solimões Formation is rare, and all the occurrences
are included in the Anhingidae (Macranhinga and
Anhinga) (Alvarenga and Guilherme 2003).
Invertebrate fossils, micro- and phytofossils, are less
well known, but several taxa of Mollusca were recog-
nized between the Feijó and Mâncio Lima municipali-
ties (Maury 1937). According to Wesselingh et al.
(2006), the Mollusca recorded at the Solimões
Formation mainly represent fresh water species, and
the faunal assemblages (including Uniodoidea,
Ampullariidae and Sphaeriidae) are very similar to those
presently found in modern Amazonian floodplain lakes.
Several holotypes are also stored at the LPP, namely
Caiman brevirostris (UFAC-196), Acregoliath rancii
(UFAC-156), Brasilosuchus mendesi (UFAC-1664),
Neoepiblema acreensis (UFAC-1716), Octodontobradys
puruensis (UFAC-1803), Eomilodon amazonocidentalis
386
Fig. 8 The fossiliferous lignite
levels of the lower part of the
Solimões Formation, showing
remains of a fossil plant
(UFAC-3962), Stupendemys souzai (UFAC-1764),
Podocnemis negrii (UFAC-4441), Macranhinga ranzii
(UFAC-3640), Anhinga anhinga (UFAC-4719) and
Paleohoplias assisbrasiliensis (UFAC- 4664), most of these
described as a result of research carried out during the 1980s
(Fig. 13).
Ongoing research on the palynological record will
enable the assignment of the rich and well-preserved
terrestrial fauna of the Solimões Formation to a more
accurate temporal framework and thus clarify evolution-
ary trends in relation to other South American faunas
and floras (Figs. 14 and 15).
The Geoheritage Value of the Collection
Paleontological heritage has a complex nature as it in-
cludes both fossil sites and the collections made from
them (Endere and Prado 2014). Site-based evaluation
approaches can be invoked for assessing part of the
Fig. 9 The Paleontological
Research Laboratory (a) and the
Paleontological Museum of the
Federal University of Acre of
Campus Sede at Rio Branco (b)
(Photo by Andreia Maciente
2013)
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
paleontological heritage of the Earth, but it is impossi-
ble to apply them to fossil collections, which are un-
questionably geoheritage elements (Brilha 2015) that re-
quire geoconservation care and actions.
A qualitative evaluation methodology for paleonto-
logical heritage based on its content as recently pro-
posed by Henriques and Pena dos Reis (2015) enables
specimen-based and site-based evaluation procedures to
be integrated within a unique system and can be easily
adjusted to evaluate fossil collections stored in mu-
seums. Assuming that the evaluation of the paleontolog-
ical heritage should take into account the diverse prop-
erties recognized by palaeontologists and the social role
attributed to fossil sites by local communities (Endere
and Prado 2014), the heritage value of a paleontological
collection stored in a museum or similar organization
can be assessed through its content (Henriques and
Pena dos Reis 2015). Content types are affected by
the relevance grade (i.e. the meaning attributed to the
fossils by scientific communities) and abstract
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
Fig. 10 Diagram representing the frequency of the different taxa in the
collection of the Federal University of Acre
perceptiveness (i.e. the public understanding of such
meanings in relation to the social use of the fossils).
According to these authors, the heritage content of fos-
sils can be ranked into three categories of increasing
value: rank I—indicial contents; rank II—documental,
iconographic, and symbolic contents; and rank III—con-
ceptual and scenic contents (Table 1).
The paleontological collection stored at the LPP of
the UFAC includes remarkable specimens of several
taxa which have been described over the last three de-
cades, as a result of an increasing interest within the
scientific community around the world into such mate-
rial. The specimens included in the LPP have supported
the training and qualification of several researchers,
leading to MSc and PhD thesis in national and interna-
tional institutions, as well as reports or abstracts and
papers in regional journals, many in Portuguese (which
also means that they are usually not widely cited in
recent international geological publications on the
Cenozoic evolution of Amazonia; Kay and Cozzuol
2006).
Fig. 11 Neoepiblema ambrosettianus (UFAC-4515) in exhibition at the
Paleontological Museum of the Federal University of Acre (Photo by
Andreia Maciente 2013)
387
Fig. 12 A large skull of Purussaurus brasiliensis (1.40 m length; UFAC-
1403) in exhibition at the Paleontological Museum of the Federal
University of Acre (Photo by Andreia Maciente 2013)
The collections are properly maintained and
catalogued, forming a significant resource and basis
for paleontological research (M cMillan 2008 ).
Therefore, they have a documental content, and repre-
sent a heritage content of regional rank that results from
a deep knowledge of the major palaeobiotic changes
over time that can be recognized in the Acre Basin
and they are, therefore, of particular use to scientific
communities (Henriques and Pena dos Reis 2015).
But like other geological objects, fossils may display
different contents, reflecting diverse heritage values,
which are not limited to scientific use alone—hence
increasing their global heritage value (Pena dos Reis
and Henriques 2009; Schemm-Gregory and Henriques
2013). The above mentioned holotypes stored at the
Fig. 13 Phractocephalus acreornatus, Holotype UFAC-4561 (photo by
Andreia Maciente 2013)
388
Fig. 14 The abundant palinomorph Echitriletes muelleri of the Solimões
Formation
LPP are specimens of typological importance for the
definition of fossil species as regulated by the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
(Page 2003). As so, besides their documental content,
they also display conceptual content (Henriques and
Pena dos Reis 2015), a global-scale content referring
to singular paleontological occurrences, designated by
a unique and universally accepted scientific process
(ICZN 2015).
The large reptiles collected from the Solimões
Formation are usually exhibited in the Paleontological
Museum of the UFAC, displayed within a scenario that
stimulates visitors to imagine their former habitat
(Fig. 9b). Among them, skulls of P. brasiliensis
(UFAC-1403) and Neoepiblema ambrosettianus (UFAC-
4515) are major attraction for the general public
(Figs. 11 and 12). Besides other contents, the specimens
Fig. 15 The abundant palinomorph Cicatricosiporites sp. of the
Solimões Formation
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
on display at the museum hold scenic content—a re-
gional scale content assigned to geological objects that
provide high recreational use to non-specialized commu-
nities (Pena dos Reis and Henriques 2009; Henriques
and Pena dos Reis 2015).
In conclusion, and from a qualitative point of view,
the paleontological collection of the UFAC can be
classified as holding regional to global relevance
grade, and comprises specimens of particular rele-
vance to scientific communities—with meanings that
range from demonstrative to cognitive—and speci-
mens which can be particularly appreciated by non-
specialist members of the general public, i.e. they
hold documental, conceptual and scenic heritage con-
tents (Table 1).
Final Remarks
The importance of the paleontological collection stored
at the UFAC is demonstrated, not only by the signifi-
cant number of specimens from the fossiliferous
Solimões Formation (Miocene to Pliocene) but also by
the difficult access to the sites from which they were
collected, in the margins of rivers, which remain
submerged 9 months a year, except for the BR 364
highway, the only main road which crosses Acre State
E-W.
The geoheritage value of the UFAC collections can
be characterized in a sociological perspective using a set
of indexes based on the integrated qualification and
classification system proposed by Henriques and Pena
dos Reis (2015). The resulting indicators (geoheritage
contents) enable the recognition of documental (rank
II), conceptual (rank III) and scenic (rank III) contents
and an overall heritage value of rank III and a global
relevance.
The approach used here on the heritage evaluation of
the UFAC collection can also be applied to other ex situ
heritage objects (not only fossils but also minerals and
rocks) stored in Brazilian museums and similar organi-
zations, which represent an important resource for
geotourism activities in Brazil (Ruban 2015). In addi-
tion, the methodology provides a useful tool for the
creation of a National Paleontological Database, which
is necessary to aid for the task assigned to the Brazilian
Commission of Geological and Paleobiological Sites,
i.e. that of inventorying and characterization of all
Brazilian paleontological sites (SIGEP 2015).
Geoheritage (2016) 8:381–391
Table 1 Types of contents and heritage value of the paleontological
collection stored at the Federal University of Acre (UFAC) according to
the integrated qualification and classification system proposed by
RELEVANCE GRADE
global
Documental
regional
UFAC
local Indicial
material demonstrave
ABSTRACT PERCEPTIVENESS
Acknowledgments This work has been supported by the project
01200.001631/2010-32—Ministry of Science, Technology and Innova-
tion, Brazil (BBiochronostratigraphy and paleoecology based on the fos-
siliferous potential of the Cretaceous - Neogene of the Acre Basin, Juruá
Valley, of the southwest Amazonia^), by a CAPES grant (Coordenação de
Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/Higher Level Personnel
Training Coordination programme), by FEDER funds through the Com-
petitiveness Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and national
funds by FCT in the frame of the UID/Multi00073/2013 project. The
authors are grateful to Gabriel Barberes, Sílvia Silva and Jorge Carvalho
for helpful collaboration with the graphical information and to two anon-
ymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.
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