Archosaur fossils from the 'Mawson Collection', Ilhas Group, Recôncavo graben, Eocretaceous of Bahia

• Grant number: 24/16852-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Principal Investigator: Max Cardoso Langer
• Grantee: Felipe de Sena Dias Urpia
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07997-4 - Dinosaur diversity and associated faunas in the Cretaceous of South America, AP.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/08219-9 - Machine learning helping to re-assess the "Mawson Collection" fossils, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The fossils collected between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in the nowadays metropolitan region of Salvador, in the state of Bahia, are probably among the historically oldest records of Mesozoic archosaurs in Brazil. One of the main collectors of such fossils was the amateur paleontologist Joseph Mawson, a railway engineer responsible for the construction of the Bahia to São Francisco Railway at the time. During the works, Mawson identified several outcrops of what is currently considered part of the Islands Group, collecting materials that would become part of the "Mawson Collection". Over the years, some of the archosaur teeth in the "Mawson Collection" have been reevaluated in the light of more recent knowledge, with crocodile teeth being redescribed as teeth of pterosaurs and, more recently, of a spinosaurid. Therefore, the main objectives of this project are to reevaluate (describe and taxonomically position) the tooth materials from the "Mawson Collection" and, if possible, carry out new collections in the fossiliferous localities described by Mawson & Woodward (1907).