Santo Antonio peninsula, Fernando de Noronha (Holocene of Brazil)

Where: Brazil (3.8° S, 32.4° W: paleocoordinates 3.8° S, 32.4° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

• Olson described the dunes as "Pleistocene" but he was collecting from unconsolidated dunes on top of outcrops of the Caracas Formation, which is early Holocene in the area (Angulo et al., 2013). The dunes are likely late Holocene. Fossils were usually found scattered on the surface of the dunes, but parts of skeletons were occasionally found in association. Many of the specimens are well mineralized, and these appear to have weathered out of a somewhat indurated layer of white nodules. This layer was exposed in position at a small sand-quarrying site near the road passing through the dunes. Only the shells of land snails were found in place in this exposed section. On the surface of the dunes, vertebrate fossils appeared to be most abundant where there were concentrations of the white nodules and snail shells.

Environment/lithology: eolian; unlithified sandstone

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: bulk, surface (float), sieve

Primary reference: S. L. Olson. 1982. Natural history of vertebrates on the Brazilian islands of the mid South Atlantic. National Geographic Society Research Reports 13:481-492 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 195071: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 16.07.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Rodentia - Cricetidae
Noronhomys vespuccii n. gen. n. sp.
Noronhomys vespuccii n. gen. n. sp. Carleton and Olson 1999 mouse
Reptilia
 Squamata - Amphisbaenidae
Aves
 Columbiformes - Columbidae
Zenaida auriculata Des Murs 1847 eared dove
ssp. noronha
 Gruiformes - Rallidae
Rallidae "new sp." Vigors 1825 rail
 Suliformes - Sulidae
Sula sp. Brisson 1760 booby
 Suliformes - Fregatidae
Fregata sp. Lacépède 1799 frigatebird