2016 - Jan : Otávio Mateus : Vertebrate Paleontology in Algarve
Otávio Mateus
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Octavio Mateus, a world-renowned palaeontologist based at the Nova University in Lisbon, spoke about the importance of Portugal in the study of fossil dinosaur remains which included those of Metoposaurus Algarvensis a newly discovered amphibian found near Loulé. He also explained that Portugal is in the top 10 of the world’s sites for prehistoric remains - the land being part of the ancient continent of Pangea and when the continent split there appears to have been a mass extinction due to volcanic eruptions eventually leading to the formation of the world’s continents as we know them today.
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Remains similar to those found here have been found elsewhere – in Germany, Poland. On the site here 9 different individuals were found in an area of 3 square metres – the highest concentration in the world. The adult salamander-like Metoposaurus Algarvensis were 2 metres in length.
In his wonderfully fascinating talk Octavio gave examples of other prehistoric creatures that have been found in Portugal including Phytosaurus from the early stages of amphibian evolution dating from the Triassic – discovered in the narrow strip of red Triassic sandstone rocks here in the Algarve. Octavio began his talk by saying that he ‘had been born in a dinosaur’s nest’ – his interest in the subject having been generated by his father who ran the ‘dinosaur museum’ in Lourinhã and Octavio’s work has taken him around the world discovering new species in such places as the Gobi Desert, Angola, Greenland, Chile and the United States. We hope he will be able to visit us again to tell of his experiences as ‘a dinosaur hunter’!
