Curadoria do acervo paleontológico da Unidade Acadêmica de Serra Talhada - Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UAST/UFRPE)

Abstract

The care required by paleontological materials can be done through the curation of fossil samples, playing a fundamental role in the maintenance of the collections. Today, most of the UAST's fossil collection comes from the Araripe Basin, focusing on the teaching of paleontology. The UAST fossil collection was not yet well documented. This work aimed to organize, analyze, catalog and topple the fossil material. The material was separated according to taxon or type, material was photographed using a digital camera, a digital database was created, and finally the material was labeled, tumbled and stored using plastic bags and finally organized by sector. To identify the pieces, a small ballast made of liquid corrective was applied and the tumble number was written on it with a permanent pen. A total of 250 fossils were analyzed. The group that contained the largest number of fossils was the fish species Dastilbe crandalli, with 57.7% of the total collection. The second most frequent was that of plants, with 62 fossils (26.5% of the total). Among the arthropods, 11 insects were identified. There is also a probable humerus of adult Eremotherium laurillardi and among the molluscs and cnidarians there are three fossils of bivalve and gastropod shells and a subfossil of coral and, finally, 2 possible coprolites. Only 11 fossil samples could not be identified. The UAST fossil collection tumble book is, today, properly organized and available for consultation.